God of Thunder
by The 483
Summary: A New year, and new Student. The New Representative Contender from America arrives, and is immediately embroiled by the animosity of Ichika's Harem. But her claim is she had no interest in making his heart dance to her tune. What is her real goal, and where did she receive the tech that her odd IS is equipped with? Original Character x ...not Ichika. Ichika x .. it's obvious.
1. Chapter 1

_Infinite Stratos: God of Thunder_

_By: The 483_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Infinite StratosFranchise._

_**Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.**_

_**Also, Much Pseudo-science included herein. I have detailed knowledge of none of the stuff I list here. I will try and stick to real science where I can, but if it seems cool, or is necessary to the story, I will veer, and just make stuff up. I will incorporate some real world names, ideas, and concepts, both factually, and non-factually. **_

**Fundamental Forces**

_One day previous_

Ichika Orimura, teenager, the only male IS pilot to date, unwilling social star of the academy, and seemingly dense as a neutron star when it came to affections of his peers, was sprawled out on the floor of his friend, Dan Gotanda, trying to avoid slipping into a stress coma while the latter added a few more hours to the latest instalment of whatever hit title he found a fancy in. Ran Gotanda, the little sister, sat with her legs splayed on the bed, staring down at Ichika, her red hair hanging into her face where it escaped the bandana that held the balance at bay.

This was a normal Sunday afternoon on the rare occasion when Ichika managed to escape the notice of the seven hunter killer class femmes that had taken up his scent.

"I am still having trouble seeing why you're complaining about this. It sounds like it's be awfully nice from where I'm sitting." Dan said, his slow and calm voice alight with the slightest hint of sarcasm.

"That's cause you're an idiot!" His sister chirped happily, her energy as vibrant as her hair color.

"Ouch." He responded, with no additional intonation. Ichika sighed explosively, and twitched a few times.

"I can kind of understand how you could think that, from the outside. But I think they might actually kill me, if it keeps up like this. They weren't exactly subtle about it before, but it's getting to the point where they can't believe even _I_ can be this stupid."

"Right, dumbass." Ran continued to her brother in an arrogant tone. "It might be nice being surrounded by a bunch of buxom, nubile, jiggley, curvy, luscious, bouncy, and slippery when wet… okay, okay, sorry, you guys are just too easy to tease." She waved her hands at the looks the two were now giving her. "It sounds nice, but that's not what Ichika cares about. Think about, stupid brother." He returned to his game.

"I got nothing. I can't see a down side." Ran looked to the sky, as if asking the heavens for help.

"God, you must be as stupid as Ichika pretends to be. Okay, remember when I finally worked up the nerve and confessed to him last summer? Remember how he reacted?" Dan had gone stock still, an aura of death swirling around him a she slowly rotated on the spot. His death stare was interrupted as a house slipper impacted the side of his head, and his demeanor shifted back to easy going.

"No, I had not heard about that one. But, judging by the fact that I did not have to cripple him, I am forced to assume he shot you down." Ichika looked unwell, and Ran made a most unladylike gesture with her left hand.

"No, jackass. Well, yes, actually. But nicer then what you said. He sat me down, calmly explained that he was flattered, and we talked for a while, and then got busy… No, no, sorry, joking. But thanks, brother, I never knew you cared."

"It is my solemn duty as a brother to kill whatever misbegotten cretin that threatens you future status as old maid." Dan answered serious. "It's in the guide book they give you when a little sister is delivered." Ran looked interested.

"Really? Do you really get one of those, Ichika?" He shrugged, still laying on his back, but with a slight red discoloration growing on his collar bone. He'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be assaulted without the aid of a weapon or a partial IS deployment. Nostalgic.

"Dunno. I am a younger brother, I and highly doubt Chifuyu ever got a text detailing that commandment." Ran, dissatisfied, waved her hand again to shut the boys up.

"Whatever, then, quit interrupting? Like I was saying… then got busy, getting me some ice cream. What I am saying, was that he was very careful in rejecting me, so that I wouldn't get my feeling hurt real bad. Honest, I wasn't happy, but we're friends now, and I am not even embarrassed about talking about anymore." A minor fib. The tops of her ears were slightly pink, but her hair covered it. "So you see the problem?" She finally added, completely exasperated.

"You can't figure out which one is the hottest?" Dan asked to Ichika, making a gesture at his own chest that informed on his own selection criteria. He gave Ichika a wink, as Ran made a frustrated scream and fell over backward. "Jeez, Ran, I was kidding. I get it. For you information, we talked about this long before you came into his confidence, too. And, yes, we both knew you liked him for like, years. See, you are still embarrassed, you're whole face is red.

"Not… embarrassed… so… pissed…" She stuttered, her shoulders shaking with fury.

"So, you pretend to be completely unable grasp what they are getting at, no matter how blunt or completely obvious they are, because it's better to lie to them now, then to hurt their feelings."

"Well, I don't like how you put it, but basically, yeah. I mean, at first, I just didn't want to be conceited enough to think that these girls actually liked me like this. At least Laura was bold enough to send unmistakable signs, but she has some unusually strong attacks of shyness, so she's fairly easy to distract." Ichika groaned. "Argh! Why couldn't Cecilia just have shown up 3 seconds later! Then I wouldn't be having these problems, they all would have seen it then!" He moaned into his hands.

"Wait, then?" Ran craned her neck up to look past her budding mountains at Ichika, her interest overriding her embarrass-rage.

"Last summer, before the festival." He answered in a muffled voice. Ran popped up, bending at the waist in a seemingly impossible flex, her eyes alight.

"Oh! I think I got it! So the one you actually like, I think I know which one it is! It was that one that I met at the summer festival with you. The really pretty one with the giant boobs. What was her name… Ah, yeah! It was…

(…)

_Present day_

Houki Shinonono slung her bag over her shoulder, closed the locker, checked her zippers, again, assured herself that she was dressed properly again, and exited the Kendo Clubs locker room. Bright, late afternoon sunlight, still a half hour from the red tint of sunset, streamed over the expansive grounds and shining domes and spires of the IS academy. She couldn't say she was unhappy here. She had the club, she had rivals, which also fit the combative notion that she had filed as "friends," she got to showcase her talents, mostly free of the shadow of her sister, she got reunited with Ichika Orimura, here real friend, and unrequited crush, and she ample opportunity to exercise her slightly neurotic tendency to try and solve all her problems by visiting violence upon him. He really did help her focus her anger at a single target, almost like a therapy squeeze toy. She hadn't even lashed out at the arrogant Cecilia lately, and lord knew she liked to generate aggro. So, despite the fact that Ichika remained steadfast in his inability to recognize that she liked him, and more then all those other girls in her way, and her own inability to relate the fact to him herself, she was otherwise contented. After all, none of the other girls seemed to have a leg up on her, and even Chifuyu seemed to have not singled out anyone else as a clear choice, she was contented.

She was jerked from her reverie on the way back to the dorms by a pair of girls looking worried and rushing passed. Another trio rounded a corner, looking excited, and moved on. She called out.

"Hey, what's up?" She cupped her hand to her mouth. There was a tension in the air, something was going on, though it was an excitement rather than a fear, so she didn't think they were under attack.

"Miss Alcott is fighting the new transfer student in the arena!" Houki let out a sigh powerful enough to throw out a lesser woman's back.

"Of course she is." She said miserably, now to herself as the girls had scampered away. Houki lifter herself back to walking, and headed in the direction of the stands at a light jog. She couldn't leave those girl unsupervised for a single moment. Cecilia was the worst, by far, always picking fights, and Rin was next, though she limited it to mostly one of the other RC's or herself. Surprisingly enough, ever since Laura had moved in with Charlotte, there had been no problems, probably Charlottes calming influence.

But picking a fight with a new student on day one; that was just rude. Houki knew a little about this, because she had been in class early with Ichika, after going over early to pry Tatenashi off of him if she had managed to weasel her way into his room again that night. So Houki had been there when Miss Orimura had told Ichika that the new Representative Contender from the United States would be arriving near the end of school, and that he was to take care of her. That was the reason that he had gotten out of his tri-weekly beating…er… training with her, and she practiced alone. So, of course, Cecilia, expecting the worst, would have gone in, halfcocked and completely tactless, and badgered the girl on false allegations until the new girl lashed out, and they fought. Exhausting, and setting a bad example for herself, her country, and the school. Houki arrived through a side gate into a box that was filled with eager girls watching the fight. It being past the normal time club activities ended, many of the students that would otherwise have been occupied were in attendance, and the stands were more than half full. She did a quick visual survey, and found what she was looking for two boxes over. A male nucleus surrounded by five females and a reasonable buffer zone She headed that way, looking over to see Cecilia in mid rant, airborne and directing her ire at another figure below the rim of the stadium that she couldn't yet see. Cecilia must have been fairly angry; her extensionals were deployed, and twitching to a rhythm that seemed to match her own wild gesticulations. As she arrived at her group, she sighed, ask asked aloud the obvious question.

"Won't Cecilia attacking a new student on her first day cause some negative opinion?" The question was aimed at Tatenashi, Student Council President, who was still bearing a slight hostility toward Houki for her interruption in the morning. She gave a warm and false-ditzy smile, and answered in a lyrical glee.

"Not at all, Miss Shinonono. As Student Council President, I fully condone of this exchange. As an Academy, it is vital that we gather all the runtime data we can of any IS system. And the new Representative Contender from the United States here has not used her IS in any real combat scenarios yet. As such, I found it to be appropriate to allow Miss Cecilia's spontaneous challenge to provide a demonstration of our esteemed neighbor's prowess."

"Yeah, and a chance to pay for her crime." Rin added, self satisfactorily. Ichika, the center of the now hexagonal phalanx, was inwardly sighing in exasperated frustration. Crime equaling "monopolizing Ichika." Never mind that Chifuyu had personally conscripted him for the task. But, he could not afford to give away that he knew what they were talking about. He simply looked befuddled, and refrained from speaking.

"Pretty words, sneaky motive." Houki said, crossing her arms, and moving forward with Tatenashi, so she could see the newcomer. She shot a sly smile sideways.

"Really, now, Houki. I assumed you would approve, as it was on your time that this interloper absconded." She remained quiet as she observed the new machine.

The legs were solid, multi jointed, and seemed to touch the ground in two place per leg. The skeleton beneath the armor was reminiscent of a scissor lift. There were the usual armored sleeves and clawed gauntlet hands but slung under each arm was a boxy device with a sharpened metal pole sticking out to some small extent. At the hip, two small pentagonal plates jutted out diagonally at the ground, gold bordered, and flared. The English letters spelling T-E-S-L-A were penned in a large, neat script along the bottom line. The free floating flight wings were smaller than most IS systems, and covered in odd, 4 pointed stars that slopped upward from arm tip to center maybe 15 centimeters. But they were spread out in a seemingly random pattern like decals on a trapper keeper. Two long, metal rods stuck straight up on either side of her back, about a half meter apart, and rose fully a meter over the top if the pilot's head The final oddity was that, the entire torso of the pilot was covered in segmented armoring, leaving only a small portion of her neck and her whole face bare. Two hook shaped spars slipped down from behind her ears and came forward toward the eyes under the ear. The whole machine was a purple so dark as to almost be black, but shining with a brilliant iridescent flair when the light caught just the right angle. More golden highlights and geometric lines were scattered sparsely about the machine.

Of the pilot, all that Houki could make out were large, deep green eyes, a small nose dusted with freckles, red, slightly thin lips, a light tan, and black hair knotted in a simple loop behind her head, pinned with what looked like silver chopsticks.

"Hmm," Houki mused, mostly to herself, "American… I was expecting more or their flag to be plastered over the IS." Tatenashi giggled mischievously.

"Right? Not very American, no? But you notice what is, right?"

"Yes. She had several weapons. Too many, I would think."

"More than you can see." Tatenashi said, poking at a data tablet she had held folded to her chest, and then held it for Houki to see. "These are the delivered specs, but I dount they are accurate, as this is a fully custom job. Look at the designer credits." Houki scanned until she found two names listed. She made a disgusted face. Tatenashi smiled triumphantly.

"Designer: Everret Chambers. Consulting and accent: Tabane Shinonono."

"Does big sis often provide personal attention to backyard tinkerers for foreign powers?" She said with sarcastic cheer. Houki sighed sadly.

"If she finds a project interesting, no doubt she would." This seemed to take some of the wind out of Tatenashi's sails, but she recovered quickly.

"Ah, well, if you read into these plans what I do… that IS is about 75 percent pure offensive ordinance." Houki took a deeper look at the plans, but it was like trying to read Arabic for her. Tatenashi continued, for her benefit. "You can see by eye the basic weapons systems. Twin knives, loaded for slashing upon unsheathing at either hip. Those poles under the arms, they look like what Charlotte had for her armor penetration, but they are meant to be fired out of a magazine of 5 each. Then, you can see the two poles on the back. I don't know what they are for, but you can bet they are weapons. And finally, clipped over her left back, is some sort of heavy rifle that don't have specs included. And finally, a mortar tube over the right shoulder."

"Okay, that's a lot, but hardly accounts for the number you quoted." She smiled more broadly.

"Okay, so it is an inference. I am going to guess that this IS uses Electricity as its main weapon."

"Okay, but the thing is named "Tesla." Not exactly subtle."

"Ah, but that is not why I guessed that. Would you like to know why?" Houki shrugged, impatient with her senior's games. "Because, roughly 67 percent of the total mass of the IS unit consist of high yield capacitors. That girl is sitting on the equivalent of a power plant that could power a small city." Houki's eyes widened slightly, but she gave no other reaction.

"Okay. That is a lot of power. Does that bolster the shields or something?" Now Tatenashi shrugged.

"Not that I can see. Her shields are sitting at 800. Not shabby, but not terribly strong compared to the new cyclotron modulation variants coming out now. All the out flow is directed into small, unlabeled hard points threaded through the arm and wing surfaces, and one oversize bar buried at the base of those two rods."

"Interesting, I am sure, but I am not an IS mechanic." She didn't know what to make of the data, just that, if Tatenashi was harping on it, it must be odd. She looked down, Cecilia was still ranting, but seemed to be winding down. "When is Cecilia going to attack?"

"What do you mean? She already has. She blitzed her for a full 45 seconds, before letting the smoke clear to see the damage. The new girl…" She looked at the data tablet again, and found the girls name, "Catherine, Catherine Elizabeth Chambers, never moved." Houki then noticed that the ground around the immobile girl showed signs of abuse, save a ring about a meter out from the outmost tip of one of the wing spars of her IS. The ground inside was pristine and undisturbed.

Cecilia, voice grown hoarse, sent the signal and her extensional guns opened up with a withering barrage of ruby colored beams, saturating the area and kicking up a storm of dust and smoke. She pause, let the smoke clear, and was irritated by the staunch refusal of this interloper to just kindly die already. The girl had not so much as blinked, as far are the audience could tell. Cecilia loaded her rifle with the heaver, armor piercing partial round, and fired with a frustrated roar. It was fast, but Houki saw the round appear to splash around a spherical surface surrounding the girl before the energies collided with the ground and exploded violently. Cecilia's haughty smile faltered into twitching when she was the girl, still playing statue.

"Argh! You stupid girl! Will you just do something already?" Cecilia screamed hoarsely, her face red with rage. The girl on the ground looked up at her, her head tilted as if she was curious, and nodded once. No one but her could see the display that said "_Charge: 56%"_, and she needed at least 60% for the maneuver she wanted to pull. She disengaged the static field generators, and toggled the trickle feed generators to grater production. There was a small, inaudible pop as the static charge around her equalized with the outside air, and a small gust of wind blew away from her.

"Deploy." She said, her voice surprisingly deep for the skinny frame she clearly had. Her wing spars quivered, flattened themselves so they were paralleled with the ground, and began to rotate around the girl. Cecilia, finally going to get to see something, braced to dodge. With the wings rotating, there was a loud clunk and vibration that shook the air as something detached from the wing and flew out straight. Cecilia checked the dodge she had planned, and looked confused. The spinning star headed out behind the American, and hit the wall, flattening to it and staying attached. This happened 7 more times, at the four points of the compass, and four minor points. 8 more flew out, and did the same at random places within the arenas floor space.

"What… was that it?" Cecilia asked, flabbergasted. The girl shook her head, and the mortar tube over her shoulder spoke. A canister trailing white vapor arced out and directly toward the blue armored gild, who flailed as she tried to bring her automated guns to bare on the slow moving projectile. Before she got of the first shot, the canister exploded, propelling hundreds od small black things at her in a cone. "Ack!" She swiped out as the black things enveloped her and passed, scattering and bouncing on the ground below. Where they touched metal on Cecilia's IS, they stuck.

"What's this?" Tatenashi asked herself pensively.

""I don't know… Houki had been studying Catherine's face. "But the American seems almost bored, so it should be interesting.

"What are these?" Cecilia asked, when she surmised that the black, jack shaped things were not causing any harm while attached. "Did… did you just spray me with caltrops?" She sputtered indignantly, as the shapes seemed to suggest. Catherine shook her head. He wings had stopped and returned, and were now just two floating triangles. The tilted and bobbed, like a foxes ears searching for a faint sound. "Then… what?" The girl spoke to Cecilia for the first time since the start of battle, her deep soprano flat, but not patronizing.

"There are four fundamental forces at work in the universe. Do you know them?" Cecilia blinked.

"What ARE you talking about? This is a bleeding battle, you twit!" Catherine seemed oblivious to the outburst.

"I will tell you. There is gravity, the weakest. Then there are the Strong and weak nuclear forces, operating on the atomic level."

"Oh ho!" Tatenashi cooed, looking interested. "I think I know what is coming."

"What?" Houki asked.

"I think I know what those capacitors charge now. Watch."

"And finally, the one that shapes the universe as we perceive it. Electromagnetism." Cecilia sighed.

"Whatever, you waif. I tire of you. I will simply blast you until whatever you are shielded with is crushed by the weight of my volley!" She raised her rifle and squeezed off a shot right as she received a strong jerk downward at the left shoulder. The blot went wide, and sizzled past Catherine's head close enough that her hair ruffled in the aftershock. Cecilia plunged down and an angle, and suddenly halted dead, her wing spare stretched wide. She hung, suspended invisibly in midair, indignant, her legs and arms pressed tight together, only able to move her neck.

"What is this? Why can't I move?" She shouted, but her voice was not carried far. The amplification of her voice through Blue Tears Radio was not working.

"Ahha! I thought so. Those black stars she spread, they are powerful electromagnets. Those little black things are probably superconductive magnets, which adhere to the other IS. That's why she is hung there. She how she's oriented perfectly North-South, and her wings are East-West? Not bad."

Instead of answering, Catherine reached up, and the butt of the rifle on her back extended into her grip. She pulled it up, and it continued to grow, triangular plates shifting down and linking to cover the two matte black square metal rods slung over and under each other, with a gap about the size of a soda can's circumference between. Thick copper tubing wound around and through holes in the bar metal like the skeleton of a tunnel. With the last plates sliding in place, the finished gun was more than 8 meters long, but of bullpup design, so the actual barrel was close to 7 meters, as the receiver sat being the trigger. This allowed for a longer barrel in a shorter overall weapon, and a more balanced distribution. The design just screamed "space gun" with is sharp angles and expanding properties, but at the same time, it had a flavor of being rough, or unfinished. Like a prototype or concept model. There was a hissing sound as gasses vented from small outlets along the base of the barrel.

"Oh, no!" To everyone's surprise, it was Kanzashi who had exclaimed. "Big Sister, you have to stop them. I recognize that weapon!" Tatenashi's eyebrow arched.

"It's flashy, yes, but doesn't seem to foreboding. Her sister looked imploringly up at her.

"You don't understand! It's a MAC system! I don't know how she got a man portable one, but those are way too powerful to use on another human, even in an IS!"

"MAC?" Tatenashi, perturbed by her little sisters uncharacteristic … excitement, that wa sit. She was worried, but clearly excited too.

"Jeez, Sister! There in anime and Sci-fi all the time! It's a Railgun!" Now Tatenashi understood the anxiety. She wasn't clear on what a railgun really was, but knew it was on the list of proscribed weapons dictated in the Alaska Treaty. She was in the air and flashing into her IS in an instant.

On the field, the overbuilt legs on the Tesla had contracted, scrunching downward and laying down brace plates, anticipating resisting significant force.

"What's a railgun, Kanzashi?" Ichika asked, causing her to blush a little at the attention. She was better at handling that now, but the aggro she received from the other girls when she received too much attention still rattled her. "I've heard the term, but I never really saw anything I understood about it."

"Well, a Railgun is a MAC, or Magnetic Acceleration Cannon weapon system. There are two main types, the Railgun uses a magnetic field generated by passing a current through a metal rail into an projectile, expelling the projectile at hypersonic speeds. The cost and scale needed to do this normally is quite prohibitive, but the American military are supposed to have a unit capable of launching a 3 kilogram projectile at 2.4 kilometers a second." There was quite for a second, until someone remembered that ordinary guns were measured in meters per second, whereas the number Kanzashi stated was slightly less than a fifth of the escape speed of the planet.

"Holy crap, that's fast!"

"Yes, it is. The kinetic energy at impact would cause a significant flash of heat and light, basically an explosion, but generated just from friction, rather than chemical explosives. But the heat and stresses involved mean that they need a massive instillation, and a reactor if they want to have enough electricity to use it."

"Well, her IS basically is a reactor, according to the schematics Tatenashi was showing me." Houki said.

By this time, Tatenashi had landed in front of the American, and waved her down, her spear brandished not at her, but ready.

"Hey, you cannot use that weapon here. Railguns are proscribed by the Alaska Treaty." Catherine shifted her glance to the new target, but did not lower the weapon.

"Gauss Rifle." Was her curt, toneless reply. The word sounded harsh and foreign, but Tatenashi waved it away.

"The list bars all Magnetic Acceleration Weaponry from deployment with an IS system." Catherine lowered her weapon slightly, and stared at the woman, whom she did not identify as an authority.

"Who are you to disbar me? The teacher who approved the duel did not object." True, but Tatenashi smiled, because it was irrelevant.

"I am the Student Council President. And that is true, but that was because that piece of equipment was not properly identified and detailed in the blueprints you're government provided." Catherine's voice did not shift.

"It was approved by all 7 veto powers before I was nominated as Represented."

"There was no provided documentation showing that."

Meanwhile, Cecilia, who was irritated by being trussed up like a mummy, had a vague sense of her predicament, though she could not tell or hear what the exchange between the haughty new girl and that insufferable Sarashiki woman. She had one extensional turret that had not been hit with magnets, and she directed it to begin blasting one of the magnet stars from close range. The rest of the stadium, focused on the debate between the other two, failed to notice as Cecilia began working toward freedom from her inviable prison.

"So, let me see if I understand this correctly." Catherine said, managing not to sound sarcastic, just tired, her gun now resting at her side, batteries bleeding out their charge and vacuum pumps allowing air to flow back into the barrel. She knew she was not going to use it. This woman was with the 5 other girls that had hunted down and begun to accost her before the blonde one managed to convince herself that they were going to duel. Blatant favoritism for friends, but you can't fight an entrenched bureaucracy. She knew she had lost this fight the moment the student council president had let onto the field.

"I am accosted out of nowhere by someone I have never met before, insulted, and challenged to a duel I had no desire to participate, and was officiated under protest. Then while participating, the fight is interrupted, and I am told that I will not be allowed to use my equipment in my defense." Tatenashi frowned.

"That seems like a pretty biased response. But you are not allowed to use that weapon until approval from the board of directors arrives, or it is inspected and certified as safe." Catherine continued to meet her eyes for another five seconds, then let her shoulders relax slightly.

"Very well." She replied, and slung the rapidly contracting gun back into its slot on her back. "I forfeit the fight, no contest." And she turned, and walked toward the entrance she had first entered from. She knew she was being stupidly stubborn, but the other options were untenable. If verification was not already here, there was naught she could do. And as for allowing the gun to be analyzed, that was a flat impossibility. Her brother had built it for her. All the pieces and devices in its construction were privately patented, and he had developed it himself, without any government money or time spent. Catherine was sole owner, and she would not let his last creation go to…

Her thought stream and preoccupation was interrupted by a sudden roar and flash of light.

Babbling and screams filled the stadium as Cecilia looked puzzled at the commotion as she lowered her rifle after the shot. She was even more dismayed when she saw the crumpled form and shades of metal. She felt a stab of panic. What the hell? The American had still had full shields, she should not have been able to breach them that easily. There were cries for medics, and Tatenashi, making a quick survey, decided the damage was light enough she could afford to move the injured girl. She scooped her up, and left in the direction of the infirmary. The others all were now down on the field, looking shocked or slightly ill.

"Hey, what the hell happened?" She yelled, as they came within earshot.

"Cecilia, why did you shoot her? The match was over!" It was Rin that spoke, almost quietly.

"What? What are you talking about?" Horror crept into her voice as she realized what she had just done. If the fight was over… the other woman must have killed her combat shields in preparation of collapsing her IS, which meant that her shot was taken solely by the IS systems "Absolute Defense." This theoretically should have minimized the damage she took… but depended on how much energy she had left… "Oh… oh my god!" she said, bringing her hand up. "I didn't know that the match was over! What happened?"

**End 1.**

_**Ending it here, hope it was a suitable intro. I am not going to post a lot of the base details on the story page yet, because I want a few things to come out as I update, but I will mod the description as I go, to keep up to date with posts. Thanks, all.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_Infinite Stratos: God of Thunder_

_By: The 483_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Infinite StratosFranchise._

_**Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.**_

_**Alright, then. First off, thank you to the commenter labeled "Unknown" for pointing my error out, as I never would have noticed that the cannon on Laura's shoulder was refered to as a railgun. Damn it. Bums me out. But, I will, at some point, excuse the tidbit away, mostly likely with some cheap excuse about it being a chemical powered projectile, I.E. the anti-tank sized shell casing ejected when she used the cannon the first time she fought on the show. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll try and make less scrub mistakes from here on out.**_

**Impatient Out Patient**

Catherine knew they were there. She had known for the last twenty minutes. Or maybe it was just 5, and felt long under their baleful stares. She had hoped they would go away, and leave her in peace, but judging by the aura of frost and the occasional sniffle, she didn't really believe such a thing was going to happen. With a frustrated sigh, she opened her eyes and stared fixedly at the ceiling.

"Good, you're awake." Chifuyu said briskly, the implied meaning to the words reading "Good, you've finally accented to acknowledge us." "I have seen that you're injuries were not severe. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of both the school, and the staff for allowing this to happen." Catherine, laying on her back in the infirmary bed, sheet pulled up to her chin, said nothing. She continued to stare straight ahead, willing the situation to be over. "I wish to assure you that the strictest disciplinary actions will be taken…"

"No." Catherin spoke, still to the ceiling, interrupting and causing the teacher to take a rare pause.

"Excuse me?" The word had the tone of a challenge, rather then the confusion anyone else would have described.

"I desire no actions to be taken. This was my fault. I failed to follow safe operating protocol." It was a few seconds before Chifuyu continued.

"As… friendly as that is, Miss Chambers, I am afraid that this situation is not that simple."

"Why not?" Her voice was still flat. "This _situation_ was an accident, and the injuries sustained by myself were the result of my own error in judgment." Miss Orimura's eyes narrowed slightly. This kind of eagerness to avoid this matter triggered warning flags in her mind.

"I hardly think that a student willfully firing upon another outside of a sanctioned duel can be classed an accident." She expected another combative response from the prone teenager, but all the girl did was turn her head so that they could no longer see her face. The sheet slipped, and Chifuyu noticed the ridges of white scarring that was detailed in the nurses report on the left side of her neck, barely showing over the sheet.

This situation was such a pain. Never mind that it was at the very least a case of assault with a deadly weapon, but the international angle, involving Brittan, Japan, and America, had staggering implications. She expected calls for action from the United States against the British Isle, and incompetence complains against Japan and the school for this one. The Americans loved to fight any battle they could, especially when they could be perceived to be the victims.

"It was an accident. It wasn't her fault. She might have inferred something, but she wouldn't have known the match was over." Cecilia, who had been unusually silent save when the waves of shame and panic had swept over her, looked up, wide eyed.

"…What do you mean?" Chifuyu asked slowly. Cecilia had sworn up and down that she hadn't known that Catherine had forfeited the fight. She had thought that Tatenashi, upon seeing her pinned in the air, had leapt in to provide aid against a common antagonist. Chifuyu, knowing full well what had happened, and the frustrations the girls felt with her younger brother, understood why the duel had taken place. The thought of a new challenger didn't sit well with any of the harem, but she would have never imagined that something like this could happen.

Cecilia had claimed, and convincingly in the eyes of Rin, Houki, Charlotte, Laura, Kanzashi, and even the normal pert and playful Tatenashi reported seriously that she believed that Cecilia, occupied as she was, was unaware that the match had ended. But, any of those girls might have a reason to lie. But if Catherine herself, who had been unconscious until about 10 minutes ago, was also advocating her innocence… that just didn't make sense, unless she was hiding something as well.

"All the conversation took place over the radios of the IS's. Her radio would was most likely not working. I would bet my life that it wasn't. So, my forfeit would not have been heard." Chifuyu scowled. Cecilia had said that she hadn't heard anything on the radio link while she freed herself from her magnetic straight jacket.

"What makes you say that?" Catherine reached up and poked at her own face with her right hand.

"Where are my glasses?" She asked, and for the first time, sounded tense, almost worried. Her voice had remained emotionless, almost bored until now.

"Here." Chifuyu lifted the thin gold framed glassed off the nightstand, and placed them in the girls groping hand. Her left arm didn't move, her left torso being the area that got injured. Catherine didn't turn her head, placed the glasses on her face, and seemed to ease slightly. This was a bit off odd behavior, as her IS in standby was in the form of a small, plain silver ring on her right middle finger. It glowed slightly, and from her angle, Chifuyu saw data begging to scroll on the inside of her glasses lenses. She thought this was peculiar, as a IS pilot could make the displays pop out holographical in midair. This desired privacy also seemed to hint that maybe she was hiding something.

"Three of my cross magnets were damaged, and one destroyed." She replied after a few seconds of reading diagnostic data. "As she focused on freeing herself, I doubt she was paying attention to what was going on between the student council president and myself. I had even forgotten that she was there, after my… disagreement. She fired, thinking everything was fine, and I was hurt because I was stupid. End of story. Accident." She said quietly, and killed the readouts on her glasses.

"Why would you say her radio was out?" Chifuyu asked. Cecilia had been so relieved when Catherine seemed to verify what she had told the teachers, she was even able to be irked that she had been forgotten. But she kept her mouth shut, she was haughty, but not completely stupid.

"She was at the center of four high powered magnetic fields. Most systems of the IS are hardened against electrical and magnetic interference, but the radio cannot often be shielded, because of how they work. While not too sophisticated, the radio gear is susceptible to becoming unaligned in super compressed magnetic fields." Chifuyu looked speculatively at Cecilia, who was carefully starring dead ahead, as if in a court martial.

"So, you'd say she wasn't lying?"

"I am not saying anything except that I do not believe that her radio was working, and that is why she shot. You can check easily enough. A simple diagnostic wouldn't likely pick up the issue, as there would not be damage to the unit, but a full one would detect the misalignment." Chifuyu started quietly for a moment. True, it would be easiest if this all fit. Avoiding an international incident would be grand, not to mention the closer scrutiny and other nuisances that would be loaded on. But, she had to understand why, and have it convincingly enough that there would be a easy to present explanation if the event ever came up for review on the national level.

"Okay. Let us say that it is all as both of you have said. That there was no true ill intent, it was an accident, and you feel that it was your own lack of attentiveness that this happened. The why are you so insistent that there are actions taken?" Catherine was still looking away, but sighed wearily.

"Madam, I cannot answer that without sounding rude. Would it be sufficient to say, that being new to this school, I would prefer not to start off at the center of something as unpleasant as a potential international incident?"

"I suppose I can accept that." She finally conceded. She gave a dagger glare to Cecilia, who stiffened sharply, even though she was still starting straight ahead, and looking as if she might start crying. Chifuyu rose from her chair, and flattened her skirt. "Very well, Miss Chambers. I assure you that nothing like this will happen again. I will have someone sent to escort you to your room, and have you shown around properly in the morning." She turned on her heel, and left the room.

Awkward silence filled the air, as both of them wished Cecilia would leave the room, but neither was rude enough to bring it up. Finally, hoping to get things moving, Catherine spoke, though she still looked away.

"If you radio is still not working after about three days, come find me, and I will demagnetize you components. Sometimes the magnetism wears off over time, but depending on the composition of the component metals, it can persist until treated."

"IReallyAmVerySorry!" Cecilia blurted in almost a single word, staring fixedly at her lap. Apologizing for being in the wrong was not one of her core skills.

"Forget it. I don't want to deal with this anymore. Let's drop it." She replied, almost curtly, a clear dismissal that irritated Cecilia despite that she was off the hook. So, graciously, (so she thought, anyway) she rose, tried to conceal that she was shaking slightly, and left. Catherine counted off a full minute after hearing the door click shut before she turned to make sure that she was alone. Once that was verified, she sat up, letting the blanket fall way. She was irritated, as her shirt had been burned and ruined, she guessed, and discarded. Now all she wore was a sports bra that had been set aside when the dual was declared and she changed into her pilot suit, and a wrap of ace bandaging covering a padding of gauze. Irritating, but not insurmountable. It was late, maybe she could get to her room before anyone saw her. Even though she didn't know where her room was… damn. She started probing her injured side, feeling out how badly she was hurt. She got nothing, so she leaned forward and grabbed the clipboard at the end of the bed with her diagnosis on it. She surveyed it quickly, no stranger to doctors charts. She had often read them when she had been in the hospital for most of two years, about three years prior. Some first degree burns, nothing to serious, an abrasion across and arm and leg from where she slide from the impact, and a cut on her back down onto her side, shallowly, from splinter of metal. Nothing too bad. She really couldn't wait to get down into the shop, and see just how bad her IS was hit.

A sharp gasp drew her attention, and she turned her head with wide eyes to see that she was not alone. She had been so preoccupied with reading her chart and thinking, she had not heard the door open. Houki Shinonono stood, staring in frank horror at what she saw. Chifuyu had sought her out when she had left, as Houki was trusted not to do anything to make things worse. She had been given a rundown of why this incident had occurred, and was asked to escort her to her room, and smooth things down, if necessary. She agreed, and went to find the girl in the infirmary so she could show her to where she would sleep. She had past Cecilia in the hall, but she was in a clear hurry, and did not answer Houki's hail.

She didn't mean to gasp or be repulsed. It was just a knee jerk reaction to what she had thought was the result of Cecilia's attack, even though it logically could not be. With the sheet around her waist, and wearing not much more than a bra, Houki saw the blanket of white scarring that covered the girls whole left side. From the base of her neck, over the shoulder, chest, and back, down the side to the waste, reaching tendrils toward her navel, and crawling down her arm almost to the wrist. The amount of damage was grotesque, and the horrified look on her face as she was looked at made Houki feel even worse for her outburst.

Catherine gave a small scream as she wrenched the sheet hard in attempt to cover herself. It fluttered up and revealed more scars from knee to panty line, before she quickly managed to tuck it in to cover all of the scarred aspects of her body with her undamaged right arm. Both girls were motionless, glowing bright red out of embarrassment and frustration as Houki lambasted herself for her inconceivable rudeness at staring. Damn it, she had been trying so hard to get a better grip on her emtions and reactions, too. She wanted to be more then just "that violent girl who was ranked high because her sister gave her a fancy toy." She knew it was too late to repair rhis, but she would do what she could. She gave a sharp bow.

"I am very sorry for my rude conduct, Miss." Catherine, horrified that she was seen, not because she was ashamed of being caught naked, or nearly so, or ashamed of her scars, but because she was afraid others would judge her because of it. But this matter required some thought, as this was now twice in the same day she had been confronted with intolerable acts. But, she still wanted to not burn any bridges she could salvage, so she decided to take the high road. Mostly.

"It's okay." She said, breathlessly, then added, a bit sarcastically. "I like being ganged up on by six girls for no reason, and then gawked at when it puts me in the hospital." She could tell that this barb drove in a little too deep, and decided to retract it. This girl wasn't one of the ones that had pushed her into that lopsided contest. "No, scratch that. Sorry, I'm just tired. You think they would have developed a drug to deal with jet lag by now, wouldn't you?"

Houki, desperately grasping on this change of subject, straightened, while still trying to look apologetic, and moved tentatively forward. She continued when she saw no resistance to this, and took the chair Chifuyu had vacated earlier.

"I cannot rightly say, Miss. I never really traveled outside the country." Catherine did a quick, practiced survey of the girl. Tall, straight, firm blue eyes, an air of discomfort with herself, a rather proportioned bust, and a set of curves that would do roller coaster proud. Her steady blue eyes spoke to her not dealing willingly with foolishness. Catherine decided she could get along with this one.

"Please, Call me Casey. And I know what you mean. I used to get around my own quite a bit, but never outside it, although it is a big land mass."

"Oh, and I am Shinonono, Houki. Nice to meet you." Casey looked a little perturbed, and edged into her next question.

"Please excuse me if I seem rude, but…" Houki halted her with an upraised hand and a light smile.

"After the day I have heard that you have had…Casey, I think you can afford to be a little rude." This gave Casey a slight chuckle, and she decided that she liked this girl.

"Alright, well, I came to this country knowing only that it is super rude to tip the waiters in restaurants. I am still having trouble telling first names from last names, and every time I think I have got it down, I learn I have been doing it wrong for the past month. What should I call you?" This was not an uncommon dilemma.

"Well, normally, it would be proper to use the last name, in this case, Shinonono with an honorific postfix. But we do get a lot of foreigners in the academy, so no one will really be offended if you use the wrong form. But, you can just call me Houki." Catherine smiled. The first real cheerful smile she had done since she arrived in Japan.

"Thanks, Houki. Much appreciated." And there, the conversation died. The conversation had flowed at such a natural clip that neither had thought of what they would say next. Catherine, as her brother was delighted to point out that she did too often, took the bull by the horns, and tried to vent some of the awkward. "Go ahead, ask it." She said in a sigh. Houki looked unsure, the spoke hesitantly.

"Was all of that… caused by the shot?" Casey sat back, astonished. Not the question she thought was coming. She was so surprised, she found that a giggle escaped before she could catch it.

"Oh, no. That hit only gave a few burns, hardly worth noticing. Silly, I couldn't grow that much scar tissue in just the… what… 5 hours I was unconscious.

"Oh… yeah… that's right… sorry." She said, completely flustered. She cleared her throat ineffectually, and changed the subject again. "Anyway, Miss Orimura gave me her impression of what happened. Could you tell me why Cecilia had picked a fight with you?" Catherine cocked an eyebrow. Why was this girl asking for _her_ side of things? Maybe she wasn't keen on either of the English speaking types? Catherine ran down what her recollection of the facts was in a concise manner, doing her best not to color it with her own ideas. When she finished, Houki was making a face like she had just met the legendary sword Excalibur.

"That's about what I figured was the case. If it's any consolation, you're not the first person she's let her mouth pull her into a fight with. If she wasn't actually a skilled pilot, she would have gotten herself in trouble by now."

"Okay… so then if she's just got a problem expressing herself politely, what was the other four girl's problem?" And so, Houki found herself explaining the dynamics of the girls that were in orbit around Ichika Orimura. She did not, of course, intend to tell it all, but it was one of those that, once started, it was easier to keep going then to halt. When she had finished, she'd found she'd spilled her own involvement in the overall picture as well. Catherine looked pensive.

"Well… I can say then, that it's not as bad as I thought. I would much rather deal with that, then if it were a "gang up on the new girl" kind of thing. And thank you for explaining your part in it, too. It may seem odd, but I appreciate the honesty. Alright, then I can forgive and forget. And I will tell you hear and now, and you can relay it for me. I am not now, nor will I ever be, romantically or sexually interested in that man, so they can save their ire for someone else."

"O-o-kay." The bold, almost aggressive way she said it took Houki aback, but she was just a might relieved. This girl wasn't as pretty as Cecilia or Charlotte, or blast it, even Tatenashi, but that wasn't to say she was unattractive. Now, not looking blank or downcast, her eyes flashing, she had a certain unexplainable vitality that served to make her look better somehow. She smiled easily, as if she were comfortable.

"Alright then, what brings you to my neck of the woods? Are you the one that teacher said she would send to babysit me?" I took a few seconds for this now casual series of words to impact Houki's understanding.

"Oh, you mean, to show you to your room and make sure you are settled? Yes. Miss Orimura asked me if I would escort you."

"Well, then I am much obliged. Shall we go?" Catherine slid her legs off the bed opposite Houki, and stood, thought about it a second, decided the damage was already done, and tossed the sheet on the bed, revealing the whole of her badly ravaged side. Houki managed to resist the urge to gasp and shy away.

"Are you sure you should move with your injuries?" She looked over as she grabbed at her thankfully undamaged pants, and gave Houki, eyes averted, a confused look.

"What injuries… oh! Those. Really, it's nothing." She flexed her left arm in a full rotation, noting a little pain, but easy enough to forget. "Will be a little stiff tomorrow, but I'll forget that they are there. And if you mean these…" she made a sweeping gesture to the scarred flesh, "I get along okay." She cinched up the cargo style pants, and clipped the belt, then looked around again.

"Darn. Looks like they couldn't save my shirt or my pilot suit." She bit her knuckle in indecision. "…you think they would mind if I nicked a sheet, if I brought it back?"

"What do you mean?" Houki asked, a little off balance still. Things seemed to be moving to fast, or this other girl was not saying everything she thought she was saying. She turned and looked almost bashful.

"Well, you have already seen my scars, so it is okay if you see them. But I do not like it out there, you know? There mine, and a highly personal and private and important part of me." She sounded very alone and sad, but bounced back quickly. "And besides, I am not really the sort that likes to go around, showing off my disfigurement for the whole world to gawk at. Not to mention all the damned tedious questions that come with it, outside of my perceived ability to operate _my_ IS, which _I_ built." She added with barred teeth. She shook her head and smiled. "That's why I decided I liked you, Houki. You didn't ask any of the questions I wouldn't answer about it."

Houki was really more of a gentleman then most girls her age. She rose, unbuttoned her uniform jacket, slipped it off, and held it out.

"Here, you can borrow mine for now. I am just taking you to your room, anyway, so it's no hassle." Catherine tried to refuse, but Houki ended it by trowing her jacket down on the bed. Catherine frowned, never being one to like taking charity, reorganized her thoughts into accepting it as a token of offering friendship, and put the item on. She clipped two middle buttons, surveyed, was satisfied that everything was covered, noted that the back of her left hand was still visibly scarred, and tucked it in a pocket. She had left her gloves in her luggage, and that was god knew where.

"Thanks, Houki." She said softly, and then got a mischievous smile. "And goodness, you could tell with the jacket on, but you are mounting some serious cannons." Houki, to her surprise, was not embarrassed by this comment. She found this odd, as whenever Tatenashi made comments/groping's to that effect, she was uncomfortable with the attentions. Maybe it was the difference in the commenter's attitudes. Tatenashi was teasing her, for sure, but there was almost a hint of respect when this girl said it. It was confusing, so she just sighed.

"Yeah… the damned things just seem to keep getting bigger. It can really be a pain during practice for clubs." Catherine walked around the bed, looking at ease in the baggy jacket, almost as if she was out for a stroll, though there was a pronounced limp with her favoring her left leg. The two girls moved into the hallway, continuing to chat affably.

"Oh? They interfere with the IS piloting?" Catherine said, then looked sheepish. She kept forgetting that she wasn't back home, and that she should show some tact. "Oh, sorry, I am being rude, aren't I? It's just weird to me, as the logistics of breast management isn't really a subject I need to worry about." She tried for a disarming smile, and patted her own meager armaments. "Like pop guns to your howitzers… damn it, I did it again. Sorry." She clapped her hand to her forehead, and sighed wearily. Now that they were really moving, her limp was even more noticeable. But, Houki giggled.

"No, it's okay. I don't find it rude. I usually get a bit of envy from some of the… less endowed girls. It's not all fun, having to lug these things around." Her voice switched to one of concern. "But are you sure you're ok? You're limping pretty heavily." Catherine again looked surprised, then looked down at her won leg, as if it were something foreign. She paid attention for a moment, and the limping smoothed somewhat.

"Ah, yeah. That just happens sometimes. I didn't even notice. And no, that's nothing new. Been like that since I got out of physical therapy. Usually it's not too bad. Hardly ever notice it anymore, except when the whole thing tightens up. It's all good."

"How can you say that so casually?" Houki asked, almost aghast. Casey looked at her, and then it was her turn to giggle. "The same way you can do it about your ti…*ahem* I mean, boobs. It's just a hindrance you get used to. Sorry if I am crass. Living with my brother for so long, I never really had a chance to bone up on the lady talk. And it's a bitch… *ahem* I mean, a pain to try and grandfather in." Houki looked skeptical, but accepted it, for now. "Sorry, got distracted. What were we on? Oh, yeah. You were telling me how your breasts interfere with your IS training."

"What? Oh, no. Not that. It's more a nuisance in my Kendo club."

"Kendo? Is that like the wooden toy swords?" Casey asked, and Houki felt the hair along the back of her neck rise. But, she took a bracing breath, and reminded herself that this girl was just ignorant, and not trying to be offensive.

"Well, they aren't toy swords. They are actually heavy and can leave bruises even through the padding. It kind of ritualistic, more about disciple and control then the actual sword craft."

"Oh, that sounds cool. I might have to come check it out, one of these days. Once I get all my stuff back in order.

"You have interest in the martial arts?" Houki asked, glad of her decision not to be pissy. After all, it was not good to be made at foreigners for simply being foreigners. As long as they made an attempt, anyway. Casey shrugged.

"I wouldn't say I normally would have the patience for it. I am more often a hammer, rather than a scalpel. But, that being said, I did break my teeth in knife fighting, and one my first IS tournament bareknuckle." The rounded a hallway corner, and continued on. Catherine was in a temp room, on the far side of the dorms, and would receive her permanent billet the following day.

"Oh? Was that what got you sponsored as the Representative Contender for the United States?"

"Nah. I kind of did it backwards. My brother actually built the Tesla long before I was even qualified for training. He was fascinated by the IS's, so he built one, sans core. He then sent the plans and diagrams to Tabane Shinonono herself. About three weeks later, a bunch of Interpol officers showed up with a sealed crate, and informed us that she had thought of his ideas as "cute" and made a core just for the project. She had also gone over and added little revisions to his work, and from what I gathered, invented a new type of battery to power my little magnet stars over dinner one night." Catherine gave a sigh and a sad smile. "And I'll be damned if, rather than offended for her tweaking his designs, I think he actually became physically aroused. Idiot." She snickered, and then wiped her face clear of emotion. "My brother wasn;t really a genius… not really. More a… savant, if you will. He just… got electromagnetic theory. Outside that… I think he was probably pretty much autistic. But Tabane… she just blew him out of the water, and the fool _loved_ it." She laughed again. "He said that, "if I was a Frigate on the sea, than Tabane is a damned Super Dreadnaught." Catherine imitated a voice, hunching her shoulders and crossing her eyes to get into character. She then shrugged again, smiling at the memory. "And, to cut the story short, the government tends to take notice when a private citizen is awarded a IS core by Tabane Shinonono personally. Next thing I knew, I was a candidate for RC for the U.S."

"And this was recently?"

"Not at all. This was almost 4 years back."

"But wait… then you lost out back then, right? What was her name… uh.. Ah, Natasha Faris was RC of America until she retired last year."

"Something came up, and I was unable to compete. Only just got back into shape about 6 months ago for national level competition." Houki was saved having to take a crack at that by them arriving at the room." "This it?" Houki nodded, and Catherine pushed open the door, stepped in, and gestured for Houki to jjoin her, shutting the door after they were inside.

"Well… this is… underwhelming. It was a small room, a single bed, night table, and a joining bathroom. A school uniform was hanging from the shower stall's wall. "Are you sure this is the right room. There's somebody's clothes in here."

"That's your uniform." Catherine eyed the garment distastefully. "What's a matter, have you never gone to a school with a uniform before?"

"Well, no. But the skirt. I cannot wear a skirt." Houki almost asked why, but remembered before she spoke. It was easy to forget when she was not looking directly at the scars. Catherine turned to her, worry in her eyes. "I can get some pants for it, right? Like at the PX or wherever?"

"School store, but it will be closed for now." Houki thought about it, but Laura was the only one that had pants with her uniform, and she was tiny, so they would not fit. "We could ask Ichika, he might have a spare he could lend you." The hope glittering in the other girl's eyes convinced Houki more than any other behavior she had yet seen, that despite seeming not to care for Houki, that Catherine really did have a complex about her scarring.

"Do you really think he would?"

"Yeah. I am sure of it." She replied, flatly with a sigh. "The bastard is equally considerate to all of the girls." Houki was surprised when she felt a hand on her shoulder. "What?" She said, wondering why Casey had a knowing smile that close to her own face. Houki suddenly turned red. "o-oh crap, I said that out loud, didn't I."

"You certainly did. Don't worry, I am sure he'll come to his senses soon. So, where do I go?" Houki swallowed, and tried to regain composure, laughing nervously.

"It's okay, I'll go for you." Catherine stepped back, and shook her head.

"Nonsense. I am the one who need a favor, I should be the one to ask. Here." She shucked the jacket Houki had lent her, and handed it back. The shock at being exposed to the mass of scar tissue was still acute, but at least Houki quit reacting externally. Catherine pulled her own jacket off the hanger, and threw it over herself, clasping all the buttons, as it was a good deal tighter than Houki's had been. "Shall we?" Catherine offered her arm, and Houki took it as a jest, and preceded her out the door. They were quiet for a moment, and then Houki decided to ask the usual first question that came up when confronted with damage of that magnitude.

"If you don't mind, can I ask how you got hurt?" Catherine failed to react so well that Houki thought she might not have been heard. But after another silent minute, Catherine replied.

"No, I suppose I don't mind. But… would you mind terribly if it is a story for another day? I am tired, and I would rather not relive it right now." She flashed a conciliatory smile, and Houki nodded.

"Of course. Sorry." Casey waved a dismissive hand.

"Posh. It's all good. It's a natural question when confronted by a person with burns on about 45% of their surface. At least, according to my favorite doctors estimates."

"Why you favorite?" Houki asked, wanting to change the subject, but out of lines to grasp at.

"Because he didn't get mad when I broke his nose when he assumed I could do more than I could in one of my physical therapy courses." She said with a happy memory smile. When they arrived at Ichika's door, Houki knocked. It was quieter then expected, so maybe Tatenashi was out… The door opened and a pair of large breasts straining for freedom from their meager cotton prison appeared.

"Yes, what can I… hmmm… what do you need?" Tatenashi asked, her jovial façade almost slipping. Catherine looked from the boobs, back to Houki, then to Ichika, seeming deflated inside, and then back to Houki.

"Hey, Ichika, Catherine here needs to ask you a favor." Houki said, instead of an introduction. Houki, still vexed about her reassignment out of Ichika's room, not knowing it had originally been Chifuyu's orders, got a small measure of satisfaction out of Tatenashi's irritation at being ignored. Catherine looked back and muttered under her breath, but loud enough that all heard "and you all considered _me_ a threat? Pfft." As she approached Orimura, she saw a hint of recognition in his weary features that made her suspicious. But she wasn't there to probe, so that could wait.

"I hate to bother you like this, but do you possibly have a pair of uniform pants until I am able to get a few pairs for myself?"

"Pants?" Ichika said, slightly confused. Catherine did her best to look demure.

"Yeah… I don't really wear skirts, and had no idea that this school required a uniform, so I didn't have a chance to ask for pants. I would have found out about it and ordered them earlier, but it was a bit of a busy day." She made it sound as if everything was normal.

"Oh, yeah." He rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry about that. I was the one who carried you in, and I couldn't help but notice…" Catherine hushed him a bit forcefully, then reassumed her demure manner, winked, though she was glowing slightly red..

"Let's just keep that between us for now, okay?" Ichika shifted nervously at the implication that the girl seemed to be making, and was willing to change the subject.

"Umm, yeah, I have a pair of pants you can use. They might be a little big, though." He moved to the dresser against the wall, and removed a pair of the grey white pants. Catherine clutched them to her chest, and gave a short bow.

"Thank you sir, I shall take my leave." She turned on her heel, and returned to Houki, who was getting increasingly odd stares from Tatenashi, but stalwartly not giving her anything. As she passed through the open door, she paused, and looked back over her shoulder.

"Hey, look me up some time. We could have some fun." She said coyly, and then made eye contact with Tatenashi for a full 2 seconds. Then, damage done, and Ichika sputtering, she again left, with a slightly irritated Houki scrambling to catch up.

"Ugh, I am suddenly tired." Casey said, her shoulders drooped.

"What was that?" Houki asked, a mite testily.

"Oh, sorry. That chick just pisses me off, and it was taking willpower not to be a catty bitch. But I had to just lob one shot out there to irritate her. I'd say it worked, no?"

"Yeah…" Houki said, dubiously.

"Ah, relax, friend. I didn't mean anything by it."

"That's not what I mean." She said slowly, thought that was part of it. "She is school council president by merit of being the strongest pilot at the academy. You might not want to piss her off."

"Meh. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. It's not like a loss would kill me. Although that does explain her "holier than thou" attitude when she _allowed_ that blonde to fight me. Oh well, I am not one to dwell on such things." Catherine smiled at Houki wearily. "But, seeing as you've been the first person to nice to me all day, I will not do anything too… incendiary." She took a brace, and sighed. "Alright then. I remember my way back well enough, I don't need ot bother you by having you trek all the way back. I can get there."

"Oh, its fine, I don't mind at all." Houki replied. Catherine waved a hand at her, already walking away.

"Nah, it's late, and there is school tomorrow. I got this, and maybe I'll see you tomorrow." She waved, and vanished around the corner. Houki stood for a moment, puzzling about her strange new friend. She was surprisingly aggressive, but moderately submissive at the same time. It was an odd contrast, and Houki wondered if maybe it was just a cultural thing. She shook her head, and went to her own room.

Meanwhile, Catherine did not really ruminate on day events, other than a vague disconsolation on the ruckus that was made. She was hoping to slip unobtrusively, but that was shot to hell. Oh well. At least she met someone who seemed nice. She opened her room door, placed the borrowed pants on the dresser, turned, and fell face forward onto the bed. She was asleep a minute later.

**End 2**


	3. Chapter 3

_Infinite Stratos: God of Thunder_

_By: The 483_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Infinite StratosFranchise._

_**Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.**_

**Alright, first off, let me say that yes, I have the Wiki open the entire time I work on this. And, I have a work around scheduled for Laura's Railgun, and an even stupider one for how they got Tabane's attention. Again, thanks for pointing out these discrepancies.**

**And as for the Paring, I thought that the first transition in the first chapter kind of spelled that out. Sorry if it wasn't clear, but, as I see it now, it's a Houki x Ichika. Just not going to edit the blurb yet.**

**In The Pit**

"Miss Shinonono, I would like to speak with you at lunch." Houki sat bolt upright, (only a smidgen more upright than normal,) in her chair as Miss Orimura's voice cracked like a whip through the near silence of the light study period. It also served to guide every set of eyes in the class on her, which she did not enjoy.

"Y-yes, Ma'am." She replied, and turned her eyes back to her text. She had sounded cross, but that was also her normal tine of voice, so there was no telling if she was safe, or if she had dug herself a hole. Mabye she wasn't supposed to get friendly with the new girl? Maybe Tatenashi had told her something untoward about the visit last night? Maybe she was just being asked to dish the dirt on the new girl, and see if a future stink might be risen over the "incedent?"

She did not turn to look, but Cecilia wore a worried expression in her seat in the back of the classroom as well. Not surprising, giving the intensive, almost hysterical grilling she had given Houki before class. If nothing else, it showed that she was sincere in the belief she had not done it to be intentionally malicious. She would not have put in this much worry if she had truly been guilty. The girls in the mechanical section had done an inspection of her Blue Tears, and found that, while the diagnostics found that the radio link was operating, the radio unit itself was not functioning. If one keyed the radio, the signal was cycled and sent to the antenna. But the magnetism had screwed up the coding process, so just dead air went out, and none of the signals received were processed. So it took a long time to find the physical evidence of the faulty radio.

This, in effect, made lunch seem to take even longer than usual to arrive, and carried a dull feeling of dread with it. By the time it arrived, Houki had worked herself up to the point where she was not even remorseful over missing the opportunity to try jam some awareness down Ichika's sensory receptors. Futilely, of course, but there was something to be said about persistence. Chifuyu waited for the other students to clear with her usual frosty indifference, while Miss Yamada remained at the corner desk, her cute, omnipresent smile in place, making her seem less threating then she was. Finally, when Cecilia cast one last worried look over her shoulder and vanished into the river of uniformed students flowing down the hall, Houki rose and moved toward the center desk. Miss Orimura sighed, and fixed a piercing gaze on Houki.

"Miss Shinonono… I assume you got on well with the new student?" Houki, who was a ball of tension at this point, simply nodded. She did not trust her voice. "Good. I knew I could rely on you. Did you talk to her about what happened?"

"O-only indirectly, Ma'am. She expressed some… mystification on why she would be targeted by six of other girls, much less the Representative Contenders of other nations, before she had had an opportunity to cause any ire." Chifuyu's eyebrow rose, and a frownline appeared at the corner of her mouth, but she held her fury. "I… well, I explained about the situation with Ichika, and she seemed relieved that that was all that was behind it." Chifuyu snorted.

"Yes, petty jealousy between students sets a great example."

"To be frank, Ma'am, she seemed very understanding of this, and assured me she would not throw her hat in the ring, as it were. In fact, once I explained, she seemed to relax a large amount, and was almost buoyant." Chifuyu glowered over her entwined fingers as she thought for a moment.

"She certainly seemed a lot less frosty when I spoke with her this morning. DO you think it is an act?"

"Ma'am?" Houki questioned, thinking she got it, but wanting to be sure before she spoke. Chifuyu sighed again.

"If Miss Chambers decides, at a later date to make a grievance over this, it will no longer solely fall on Miss Alcott, Miss Sarashiki, and myself for negligence. At that point, It could become an international incident, not to mention a mark against the school, even once we file the all the proper reports of the incident. America has been behind in the IS race for a long time now, and the political situation in the light of the recent attacks by Phantom Task and other elements is… delicate. In short, what I am asking is, do you think that this friendly attitude is genuine, and that she considers the matter dropped?" Houki thought for a long minute on the gravity of her input here… and didn't like it.

"Well, Ma'am… I can say the Miss Chambers seemed rather odd to my… but not in a negative fashion. I spent maybe two hours with her… and she seemed friendly and intelligent enough. If she is lying, I would say she is an accomplished actress. She talked fairly candidly, at least, she seemed to. It seemed genuine to me." She added the last part quietly, not because of doubt, but because she worried over the impact of her testimony.

"Very well. I agree with your assessment. Now, for why I called you here. You are currently single occupancy, correct?"

"Yes…" She hesitated, hoping this would be good news.

"Have you spoken to anyone about becoming your roommate?" Houki decided to press her luck.

"No, Ma'am. I assumed I would be moving back into the room with Ichika, now that things have settled down." The look on Miss Orimura's face spelled out the odds of that in large, bold face print.

"I am afraid that is not the case. As the assailants of Phantom Task escaped after that last attack, I would like Miss Sarashiki to remain where she is for the time being." Chifuyu's eyes flicked back and forth quickly, and she let the merest trace of a sly smile touch her lips. "Besides, I would think you wouldn't need the handicap of living with him." She said, almost playfully, cause miss Yamada to giggle, and Houki's cheeks to glow.

"Anyway, how would you feel about Miss Chambers being assigned to the blank bed in your room?"

"I… I do not think that would be intolerable. Why place her there? Wouldn't she be better in the hall with her own class?" Miss Orimura crossed her arms and leaved back in her olid leather chair.

"Miss Chambers inquired into the possibility personally."

"Is this a concession?" She replied, mildly.

"My, aren't you a shrewd one." Houki didn't know why, but this made her feel embarrassed. "Not specifically, though that is not a bad thought. In actuality, Miss Chambers confessed that she has some awkward body modesty taboos that she is very conscious of, that she expressed did not apply to you specifically." She left a pause, so Houki could elaborate.

"Ah, yes. I happened to accidently walk in on her while she was not covered by the sheet. She reacted unfavorably, but seemed to force herself to be comfortable with the fact, rather than get angry."

"Interesting, but is shows of a degree of her character. I've seen her medical records. Poor child. She inquired if you were a possibility after she asked me where she could obtain pants for her uniform, as a skirt was untenable for her condition.

"I have adjusted to stranger, Ma'am. I have no complaints." Chifuyu let out one unguarded smile, and quickly returned to her teachers mask.

"Very good. We'll have her luggage sent over. Can I trust you to show her around if needed? Good. Dismissed."

(…)

The bell to signal the closing of the kitchens echoed through the noisy hallways of the academy as students back from dinner, chatting, or getting back late from club activities that ran over returned to their rooms for the night, or gathered in groups to enjoy a soak in the large open bath. Some still groused about how the newer "Male" bath went mostly unused, now that it had turned out the Charles Dunois turned out to be a pretty girl, rather than a pretty boy, but it had yet to be opened as a spillover for the girls. There were however rumors floating around saying that on occasion, very special permissions for individual girls to use this bath were granted, but no one ever seemed to be able to source this rumor, or find someone who had received this reward.

Houki plopped her butt back down on her bed, after her latest round of pacing, crossing her arms over her chest and frowning deeply. She had not found Catherine, and Catherine did not know where her room was, even though her travel bag and single wheeled case had found their way in. Her initial irk at still being displaced from Ichika's room by Tatenashi via Chifuyu had dissipated in the fact that she had been unable to locate her new roommate, and the thought of the unpleasantness that would follow if she failed at this. After class, she had checked about, with no luck. By the 6 P.M. dinner call, she posted near a doorway, and watched the kitchens and cafeteria for sign of her. But she never came to dinner. Now, at roughly half past 7, she had returned to her room hoping that when she was given the news that they had been approved as roommates, she would have been told where to go. This thought ending, started another round of pacing the room.

Finally, unable to stand the tension of doing nothing but waiting, she left again, came back, left a short note in case Catherine arrived while she was out, and took to asking random people if they knew anything. Finally she hit a clue in the form of Class 4's class representative. She mentioned that during the break, the new girl had been asking about the Maintenance facilities in the school. Houki thanked the girl and left at a trot. Of course, it was so simple she never would have thought about it. What was the first ting an IS pilot did when their unit was damaged beyond its own ability to self-repair? They took it to the shop, because they were basically naked without it in fighting condition. All parts needed to be in working order, or they would not deploy when summoned. And a full deployment was necessary for a proper parse of an IS unit's performance. So naturally, after taking a hit with her Absolute Defense, she would want to fix it. At the meant a trip to…

(…)

The Pit, as it was called, was an area set below the arenas where duels were fought. Each bay, Catherine saw as she entered the cavernous space, was a large room of cells the size of racquetball court, where an IS could be mounted for maintenance and repairs, or mods. She arrived on the heels of the bell that signaled the start of club activities, 5 minutes after the final school bell, and the place was empty. Directly to her left was a poster listing the rules, which consisted mostly of safety tips for tools, don't screw with other peoples areas, and the usual stuff found in machine shops everywhere. There was an old desktop computer on a metal cart, where she was prompted to print a small nametag to clip on the cell she intended to use. She did so, using just "Casey", and walked down the line. To the left and right, the cells loomed, large, three walled concrete rooms with an overhead crane and mounting rack. Most were empty, although the first 6 on each row were earmarked for school training models. She chose cell 8 on the right, because she liked even numbers, and preferred her right side to her currently stiff and lightly achy left. Plus, whoever had been the delivery people with her equipment, had chosen that cell to offload her gear. She clipped her name plate to the placard, shouldered her bag, and then tossed it in a far corner. There were more than a dozen packages, form wooden crates taller then she was, to smaller, metal boxes marked with stickers and seals of Interpol, The DOD, and some seemingly arcane company logos. There was even a small box marked with the mechanical bunny ear symbol that Tabane Shinonono liked to stamp on personal correspondence. Casey smirked at it, because that meant that, financially speaking, the contents of that package was valued higher the all the other packages combined, possibly by a factor of 3. She cracked her knuckles, shrugged out of her uniform jacket, and failing to find a hook, folded it and placed it on her pack. She then did the same with her uniform dress shirt, and the borrowed pants. This left her in her pilot suit, a black affair with gold trim at the left wrist, under the chin, right shoulder, and ankle cuffs where they jointed to the shoe portion. The suit covered all but her face, left hand, and right arm, and was practically skin tight. She removed a white tank top, and pair of old, worn jeans, and threw them on over the suit, and added a fingerless glove to her left hand, effectively covering all her scars, and leaving her looking like an average grease monkey. Satisfied, she found the shipping manifest, and began browsing. She had a lot to do tonight, and a bunch of set up to do before she could even start. She flipped a page, and looked for the first box she needed.

(…)

Honne Nohotoke, Kiyoka Aikawa, and Kaoruko Mayuzumi, (henceforth simply Honne, Kiyoka, and Kaoruko when they are mentioned) Took the steps down to the Pit at a lazy pace after the sheer scale of the meal they had just finished. Honne, usually the perkiest of the trio of maintenance girls, was almost nodding off while she walked. They had to finish tweaking one of the training IS's, but the Newspaper Club ran late because Kaoruko was unable to find the new girl to interview, and Cecilia was reluctant to speak on the subject, and took a subtle technique of flattery, badger, and passive aggressive questioning to spill the relevant information. As such, they had been unable to venture down until after dinner, having had no luck with the new girl.

"Hey, guys… do you hear that?" Kiyoka said, holding up a hand to halt the other two.

"…Yeah… it sounds like it's coming from the Pit." Kaoruko replied slowly, while Honne blinked sleepily. They could all hear a low growl with a thumping beat interspersed rhythmically. Kiyoka moved cautiously forward, and pushed at the swinging metal door that opened into the maintenance bay. It immediately became clear, when exposed to the sound, that it was some form of music with a lot of bass drum in it, and a screeching that was presumably someone singing. They edged closer cautiously, and peered around the corner of the cell that was the epicenter of the noise. The cell seemed almost dark, but the hulk of an IS mounted on the ceiling crane, its gold trim reflecting the hall lights dominated the center of the cell. The entire left side of the machine was a crumpled wreck, the center torso and arm completely gone, along with the left wing. The left legs plating was cracked and scored, and burns and uneven melts marked all the broken edges. The girls got the impression from it that the pilot should not have been on her feet, much less working on it.

Large metal cabinets, still will stickers marking their construction order were lined along the left wall, and the right hand wall held closest to the hall, a large corkboard, followed by a wire grid full of hooks and tools. The far back wall had another wire grid stretched across it, but mounted her were 16 four point star objects hung in 3 rows of 4. Wires wove across the grid and connected to ports on the lower right arm of each star, and a blue light glowed on the 3rd one in the top row. The ceiling mounted lights that normally illuminated the cell had crude metal baffles over them, effectually eliminating the lighting. In its place, a strip of flexible cable was threaded around the floor where the walls met, and where the walls and ceiling met, and could be illuminated to provide a bottom up lighting to the entire room. On each wall, two high powered spot lamps mounted on jointed, telescoping arms, with dual bulbs, one for white light, one for black light.

Finally, upon a square cart with several drawers, a new age transparent screen computer was mounted, and leaning heavily on it, the glowing screen illuminating her face in the dark cell, was the new student. It was Kaoruko who took the first step forward and as her foot entered the space, a laser relay was interrupted, and the loud music dropped to a subtle background whisper. Started, the girl in the corner shuffled quickly, closing what she had been looking at, then whipping around and standing at rigid attention. She pressed a control and a tablet clipped to her waist, and all the lighting strips glowed up slowly until the room was awash in an even, indirect lighting that left no real shadows. Startled herself, Kaoruko took a jerky step back, and as her leg left the cell, the music returned to full blaring life. Catherine killed it with another tap on her tablet.

"Oh… hello." Catherine said, breathlessly. Honne, observant as she was, peeked over her hands, brought together in their long sleeves.

"What were you doing back there?" She asked, her personal innocent tone coloring the words in neutral flavor.

"I wasn't playing Katawa Shoujo, if that is what you are asking." She said, slightly red.

"That sounds… not good." Kiyoka added with a frown at the image the slang conjured.

"You'd think so, but it is actually quite charming. So, what can I help you ladies with?" She smiled in a strained way.

"Oh, we didn't mean to bother you. We were just surprised to find anyone else down here." Catherine giggled embarrassedly.

"Ah, sorry. Am… am I not supposed to be down here?"

"Oh, no, you're fine. Besides, with the damage sustained, it makes sense you'd head down here first opportunity. It's just usually us three, that's all." Honne said amicably, and then gathered the other two by eye. "I am going to go and get started, so I can go to bed." She turned, and walked back to the 4th cell on the left to the machine they had been working on.

"Wait, I am coming too!" Kiyoka called, and hurried over.

"This may seem a stupid question, but you are the new student from America, yes?" Kaoruko asked, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose as her quarry was located and her journalism mode kicked on.

"Yep." She answered simply.

"There has been a lot of talk about you." She said, hungrily, then remembered herself. "Ah, sorry, my name is Kaoruko Mayuzumi, and I am on the school newspaper. Could I bother you for an interview?" Catherine crossed her arms an thought about it.

"I… suppose…" She answered hesitantly. "It's not going to be a bunch of leading questions and a smear campaign, is it?" Kaoruko looked indignant.

"I should say not!" She gave an offended sniff.

"Very well, then, I consent." Kaoruko materialized a notebook and pen in her hand, and cracked it open with a motion well practiced.

"Alright, then. First, may I have your name?" She asked, already scribbling out the framework of the article, knowing her questions, and leaving space for her own personal shorthand.

"Catherine Elizabeth Chambers." She answered, and moved over to the biggest and most solid of her cabinets. She opened it, revealing some sturdy drawers, and a waist high shelf with a coffee machine bubbling on it. "Can I offer you some coffee?" She offered, gesturing with a shrug as she fixed a cup for herself.

"Oh! Why do you put it in there?" Kaoruko asked, moving deeper into the cell, and looking at the machine. "And Yes, Please." She added.

"Because this…" She pounded a fist hard on the inner wall of the cabinet, the fluid in the pot didn't even ripple, "is the most stable spot in the cell, and I can keep it covered.

"Clever… thank you." She tucked her notebook under her arm and accepted the offered cup. She noticed there was powdered cream and sugar, and mixed in her choice. She sipped it, found it satisfactory, and placed it on the shelf as she redrew her pad. "You seem very comfortable here. May I ask how you managed to set up so much so quickly?"

"Well, back home… er… in the U.S. that is, my brother basically lived in a machine shop we had on the property. So, I pretty much did too. We had cots and everything set up, so if we slept in the house more then maybe, two nights a week, I can't remember it.

"You brother enjoyed working?" She continued, having finished scribbling almost before Catherine had finished talking.

"Heh, liked doesn't really cover it. Most of the time, I almost had to force food down him. If I didn't watch, he'd forget to eat, and only used the restroom because I threatened to kill him if he actually tried to regress into diapers." She said with a fond laugh. "Yeah. He really loved his field. He designed most of my Tesla, and I built him. He did the smart stuff, and I did the sweaty part." She let out a contented sigh of remembrance.

"And this was a government sponsored core that your IS is built around.

"Oh, goodness no. We had the thing built, and Everret, my brother, would periodically mail designs and ideas to Tabane Shinonono when he thought he'd gotten onto something truly awesome. And, surprisingly, instead of a cease and desist, she sent him a bleeding core and revised and improved designs based on the ones he had sent her."

"Interesting. Now, if I may change the subject, about your battle yesterday…" Catherine held her hand up to cut off the reporter.

"All I will say about that is that the injury was an accident, and there are no negative feelings on my side of the issue." She said firmly enough that even Kaoruko's journalistic desire to press forward was dampened.

"Okay, then, can I quote that? Excellent. Alright… lastly, how do you like the school so far?"

"Well, I haven't been here long enough to for a real opinion, but I like what I've seen up to this point." She said, and shrugged again. "Yeah, sorry, that's all I have." Kaoruko smiled understandingly.

"That's perfectly alright. It's just a filler question, anyway. This should give me enough to craft an article. Thank you." She gave a very small bow, flipped closed her notebook, and tucked it away. "Now, I think I should go help my friends." Catherine gave her a sunny smile.

"Of course, thanks for visiting, and I look forward to seeing what you write." Kaoruko took a step back and then turned, grabbing her coffee, and then retreating back to the hallway. As she moved into the cell with Honne and Kiyoka, the music from the American's cell resumed.

(…)

It took a little longer than they thought it would to get the whole of the problem with the training IS rectified, so it was around 7 when they had it all back together, and flagged to be returned to storage.

"Hey, Kaoruko, that was the new girl, yeah?" Kiyoka asked. She had been one of the few girls in their year that had missed the excitement in the arena the day before.

"Yeah, it was." She answered, wiping her hands on a rag.

"Her unit is pretty badly tore up… should we offer to help her?"

"I thought you wanted to go to bed." Honne countered, looking blank.

"Well, yeah, but… I'd still feel bad if we didn't at least offer

"I know. Kaoruko, do you agree?"

"I have no problems. I'm going to be up for a while regardless."

"Alright, then, let's go!" Honne said, raising a sleeve ensconced arm cheerfully, having worked of some of her post consumptive apathy. They moved as a trio back over to the loud cube of dark, where the girl was again hunched over, staring at the glowing screen of her flat glass monitor. When they entered, and again broke the relay that cut the volume on the music, she did not jump in surprise. She turned with a smile, and walked over.

"What's up, ladies?" Honne, despite her small size and timid appearance, was often the mouthpiece for the trio in situations like this, because of her boisterous and unassailable cheeriness. Kiyoka didn't contribute unless she had something to add, and Kaoruko was friendly, but only ever really butted in when she smelled a juicy story.

"Miss, we were wondering if you might need any help with your own machine." Honne asked, her in her lightly spacy tone.

"Oh, no, there is nothing you could do." Catherine said it simply, and without rancor, but instantly the girls eyes narrowed and the hair on the back of neck rose as the impingement on their prowess hit their nerves. Catherine noticed and looked puzzled, then her eyes flew wide and her hands came up apologetically. "No, no, sorry, that's not the way I meant that. I am so sorry, I still struggle with connotation in my own tongue, and the nuances in your language are a whole different kind of thing."

"Connotation?" Kiyoka said with a trace of frost.

"It's the flavoring a word has based on the culture using it. Like a shade of meaning. It's like how slick and slimy can be used to describe the same thing, but slimy conjures a gross image." Kaoruko added, words being her field.

"Yeah," Catherine said, hopefully, "I did not mean what I realized I implied. What I mean is, "there is nothing anyone can do right now."" The girls no longer emitted the aura of hostility they had a second ago, but were by no means mollified.

"What do you mean…" Honne asked, suspicion clear. Catherine motioned them over, and they moved deeper into the cell, past the suspended IS, to the back, where she indicated the wall with the star magnets mounted. The blue light was glowing near the cable in the fourth unit, now.

"Alright. As I was injured yesterday," Kaoruko twitched in a way that almost looked as if she wanted to grab her notebook, but was barely suppressed, "I am not going to start on any of the wiring or plating, or actuators, or any of that heavy stuff today. But, 1 of my magnets was destroyed, and needed to be replaced, 3 were obviously damaged, and all 16 need to be tested and adjusted if necessary. So basically, all I am doing is running diagnostic tests, and adjusting where necessary. This is on all 16 units, and I am on number 4, and that is just of the new ones that I had mothballed. So it's basically just waiting for each unit to be tested, pulling down one if it needs correction, adjusting it, and then remounting to test. It's just tedium at this point, so while I really appreciate the offer, there is nothing to do."

"Ah, okay, that makes sense. How long does each one take to test?" Honne asked.

"About 45 minutes to run the necessary number of redundant tests."

"Wow, just to test the one thing?"

"Oh, my no. Inside each of the superstructures are sixteen bar magnets that need be aligned with micrometer gauge precision. So run the tests 24 time per adjustment, to make sure that they work every time, because I cannot afford to depend on it, unless I am certain it will work." She unclipped the data pad from her hip, keyed it, and held it up. A waveform chart showed fluctuating red, blue and yellow lines waving around a static green wave. In large text, "7 of 24" was hovering over a progress bar that was slowly advancing. Under this, it showed a schematic of the star shaped magnet, with rectangles outlined in orange, and a green color overcoming the ones that were being tested.

"Each one had to be tested separately to ensure its conducting properly, and then in sequence, to make sure the flow lines don't compete. So really, it's 24 x 16 x 16, and that's only if they work perfectly every time." If there is an error, discrepancy, or unknown, it rejects it, and I have to correct, then retest. So it is mostly just ridiculously tedious."

"My god!" Honne said, her hand to her mouth and her eyes cracking wide. "Why would you bring such finicky equipment out into combat?" Her voice was dripping with shock. Catherine shrugged, and gave a wan smile.

"Well, it's not like it's life or death out there. And besides, all new gear is finicky and delicate in its experimental phase. But sensitive equipment needs lots of maintenance, so it's necessary." She lovingly stroked the battered metal of her mount. "But all of that is just the first line. I'm not going to spoil it, you'll have to wait and see until I get out into some fights I am actually allowed to fight in." Her smile turned from soft to predatory. "You may be surprised at what I do."

(…)

Houki pushed open the door a little before 8, and was disappointed to not immediately see her target, and would have analyzed why she expected this odd possibility if it were not for the assault of the loud music on her sense of thinking. As she moved deeper into the pit, she cast her eyes around at the empty sells, the one training IS marked for moving, and the overwhelming thunder of the music. When she arrived, and looked into the dark cell with the mounted IS of the girl she was looking for, she didn't see anyone, just a faintly glowing rectangle in the back corner. She stepped inside, and the music immediately dropped to a whisper. She was stunned by the change, and after a few seconds heard a voice for the far end of the hall, after cell row twelve, call out.

"Hey, whoever is over there, we're down here in the lounge!" Houki, who was inexplicably embarrassed, as if she had been caught snooping, exited as the music pounded at her back as it resumed. She moved quickly, and arrived in the small terminus that was not quite cell, but was slightly bigger. Boxes, lockers, and other spare parts were commonly stored here, but there was also a water cooler and a half a dozen chairs. 4 of them were filled with girls drinking coffee. Three of them Houki recognized from her class, though just by sight on one, and the other was the girl she sought, obviously telling a story that the others found interesting.

"…so, I get off the train, and the station is moderately crowded, but seeing as it's like, midnight, it's mostly dead heads, graveyard workers, meth heads, and the usual smattering of homeless people. So when I see this guy walking toward me, not in a fast food uniform, looking alert, I know something is up. I thought, oh, it must be a fan, here to try and get a looksee before the match. Well… not quite. He pulls a gun, and BAM, shoots me." She pointed to a ridged scar that crossed the outside edge of her shoulder. The other girls, and Houki, all looked aghast, but Catherine laughed.

"Ah, poor little bastard was a crap shot. I don't think he knew, either, because he sure looked surprised that I didn't fall down. So, I guess I must have pulled an Andy "Old Hickory" Jackson, for next thing I know, I am being pulled off him, my shoulder and hands sore, having beat this poor sod half to death. I guess I was lucky a by standard stayed to testify that the guy shot first, I had beat him so badly, the Cops thought _I_ had started it."

"My god, that's crazy!" Honne said, her hands clutched at her mouth.

"Yeah, why'd he do that?" The other two asked. Houki took this moment to sit down too, having forgotten why she had come. Catherine shrugged like this was an ordinary, boring story.

"Oh, it turned out he was a supporter of Chelsea Whitman, who it just so happened was my opponent in the finals 2 days later, and he wanted to make sure his girl won."

"Did she?" All four asked. Catherine made a noise of stark denial, and leaned back casually.

"Pfft, no flipping way. That match circled on the internet for a while under the title "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre II: The de-bitchening." She said, with an almost arrogant smile.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa… you mean the Chambers V. Whitman bout from 2 years ago?"

"Yeah, won me the RC title."

"That was you!?" Kaoruko said, almost scared. "That is still regarded as one of the most brutal fights between IS pilots ever fought." Catherine huffed.

"Bitch should have not had crazy fans. Besides, her arm wasn't in there when I removed it, anyway. Bloggers didn't have their facts straight. Plus, she was only in the hospital for two days." There was quiet for a second, the Kiyoka rose.

"Well, as thrilling as this was, I think I will turn in. Thank you for the coffee, it was nice to meet you." She bowed, and Cathrine made a polite reply, as her other two friends joined and left. Catherine turned a happy smile to Houki.

"Hi there. What brings you down here at tonight?" She asked lightly.

"Was looking for you. Didn't see you at dinner." She replied, wondering if she should comment on the story she had just heard. Catherine looked her over with a raised brow.

"Looking out for me? Should I be flattered?"

"Well, Miss Orimura did ask me to keep an eye on you. In a friendly way, of course."

"Of course. But I skipped, wasn't hungry, and I can always eat later. So you just hunted me down because to be friendly?" She didn't say it with any suspicion, but Houki felt like it anyway, as an extension of her failing to locate Casey earlier.

"Well, that, and to show you to your new room assignment." Catherine looked slightly crestfallen at this, but covered it well.

"Oh? An you know who I drew? Please tell me she's not a total bitch." She said, with desperate hope in her voice. Houki decided to engage in one of the very rare instances when she had a sense of humor.

"Well, to be perfectly honest, she can be, at times. But I think you'll be able to get along alright. Shall we go?" Catherine looked slightly nervous, but then mastered herself, and forced her calm back, and let her face relax.

"Nah. It's okay. You can just give me the room number, and I'll find my way there when I finish up here." She said, lifting up her data pad and examining it briefly. Most girls at the academy tended to retire between 9 and 10, which wasn't far off.

"I'll wait. When do you think you will be done?" Casey again examined her data pad, doing some basic calculations in her head.

"Oh, if nothing goes wrong… let us say about 1."

"What!?" Houki exclaimed. "What do you mean, one? Like, one A.M.?"

"Yeah." Catherine replied with a hint of boredom. "That will leave me with 4 to check tomorrow."

"That is unacceptable!" Houki, who required her 8 hours minimum for proper function, recoiled at the thought of the closer to 5 hours Catherine was planning for. Less, if she planned to eat and shower before then. Or after. Either way, it was far to little sleep for Houki's comfort. "You cannot possibly get all the sleep you need on that schedule!" Catherine shrugged noncommittally.

"It balances, I sleep best in class, anyway." Judging by the look on Houki's face, she did not appreciate this joke. (Not that it fully was a joke, mind you.) So Catherine checked her pad, signaled to end testing when the part it was on finished, in 30 seconds, and keyed it for standby, so she could pick it up tomorrow.

"Alright, Alright. You win. I'll stop here, and pick it up tomorrow. Just need five minutes to clean up, and put all the systems to sleep. That suit?"

"Oh, okay." Houki said, having to clamp down and banish the bluster she was preparing to vent. Houki watched as Catherine deftly moved about her own space, shutting down or switching to standby all the system she was using, and put away her tools. Houki had been rebuffed in her offer to help, for the simple fact that Catherine could do her clean up faster if she wasn't constantly being jostled by someone unfamiliar with where she kept things.

Catherine was clearly apprehensive as they approached the room, and Houki was a bit pleased with herself for having thought to have a little fun. Being stressed over fighting the other girls and competing over Ichika left her very little chances to exercise her mostly stagnant humor.

"Here we are. Go ahead." Catherine moved slowly up to the door, and Houki noticed that the nameplates next to the door read "Shinonono" and "Chambers." But Catherine didn't seem to notice this, and knocked. There was, as predicted, no answer. "Oh, just go in already." Houki said, irked her plan had been ruined.

"I guess she's not here…" Catherine muttered, and opened the door.

"What do you mean? You saw the nameplate, I am your roommate. Your request was approved." Catherine looked shocked, then pleased and relieved.

"Oh, sweet! I had no idea."

"Why not?" Casey looked embaressed.

"Well, it's an old stereotype that American's always think all Asians look alike and are related. So, I kind of just… don't associate name real well. I was trying to avoid making racist assumptions."

**End 3.**


	4. Chapter 4

_Infinite Stratos: God of Thunder_

_By: The 483_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Infinite StratosFranchise._

_**Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.**_

**In The Pit**

It was amazing how quickly one could become adjusted to new circumstances, Houki thought as she awoke far too early on a Sunday morning. It was the following Sunday after Casey, her new roommate had arrived. They had not spent a lot of time together overall, being in different classes and Houki having club activities. But Catherine was scarce as well, having spent almost all waking hours she was not in class in the pit, repairing her damaged machine. So they had only really talked during the interlude when they both lay in bed, waiting for sleep to come. But they had got along. They already had a pretty stable schedule. Catherine had been working until around 8 every night, when it was impressed upon her by an outside source that she needed to eat, despite it cutting into working hours, or Houki would get in trouble for it.

So Catherine grudgingly accepted that she would cut off at 8, and eat while Houki used the shower, then Catherine would return and take her own shower, with completion of nightly chores/homework or Ichika hounding/Sarashiki trolling until around 10, 10:30. Catherine had been at odds with Tatenashi since the first day, and had mainly ignored her, or passed a barb in a semi-subtle way when in earshot. At least, until Thursday, when she received the paper she had sent for on Tuesday. She had filed a copy with Miss Orimura, and had let her throw it in Tatenashi's face. Houki had seen the gleam in Catherine's eyes when she had seen Tatenashi's face. Why this had become a battle point between them she did not know. But she had looked at the paper Catherine had smugly showed her, and acted as if she understood the reason she was so pleased. Most of it seemed like lawyer talk and condescending over explanation, and the last three pages were just a long string of patent numbers and references. But Catherine pointed out the relevant passage.

"…while implementing Magnetic Acceleration to propel the projectile (See Reference #72) to hypersonic velocity, the technology involved does not interfere with the concessions of the Alaska Treaty." At the bottom of the page with text, signatures of the representatives of the seven veto powers were embossed. There still needed to be a test to see if the weapon in question was safe to use on other people, but that would happen sometime the following week.

"Hehe, it great, because the weapon was not created for the IS, it's a byproduct of the IS, it is proprietary technology, so I don't even have to let my own government look at it."

Houki did not know a lot about the Alaska Treaty, (They did not get the class pertaining to the geo-political landscape of a world with IS capabilities until late in the second year. The first and first half of the second aimed at learning about and how to pilot the IS's.) Other than the fact that its primary purpose, besides making sure that IS equipped countries did not use them for warfare, was to keep a technological balance between these countries, so no one fell behind. So she had simply made a non-committal noise, asked her to pass the chicken, and looked pretended she understood why the other was so pleased.

The had been going to do her preliminary rundown on Friday after class, but a storm pattern had swept in, so she had postponed it for Saturday. But, Saturday had also brought and all day shower, and the teachers did not like the students to operate there IS's in the rain unless it was a heavily supervised drill. The plan was to have a little sparring match, which Houki volunteered to assist with, confident her 4th Generation could handle whatever Catherine's backyard breed machine could dish out. She had volunteered to help her Sunday, but Catherine had begged of, claiming she had a prior engagement. So they would pick it up maybe Monday, or Tuesday.

Houki rolled over, and looked at her clock. Just before 8 A.M. It was rare that she allowed herself to sleep in like this, but she enjoyed it. But Catherine, dressed for town, rather than the academy, was making an awful lot of noise, now sucking a finger and pointing a chop stick threateningly at the rice cooker on the sink counter. She apparently heard the shuffling of the sheets, for she turned, and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry, did I wake you? I was trying to do this quietly." Houki sat up and rubbed an eye with the back of her hand, and yawned.

"… for trying to be quiet, you sure do make a lot of noise." Catherine gave an embarrassed smile.

"Yeah… sorry about that, but this infernal machine has spent the last 15 minutes trying to convince me that it wants to die." She jabbed it sharply with the chopstick, and looked irritated. "I do not know what it is with me and these lesser machines. I mean, I once even had a toaster commit suicide."

"It's okay." Houki said with a chuckle, throwing back the sheet and rising, her night gown all bunchy. She stretched, and Catherine averted her eyes. Once Houki had fished and straightened herself, she walked over and inspected what had Casey bothered. "Aw, do you need me to work the rice cooker for you?" She said in mock sympathy. Casey made huffing noise.

"Nah, I don't feel like it anymore. Just trying to avoid a trip to the cafeteria. Anyway, sorry again." Houki waved it away.

"Don't worry about it. I should already have been up, anyway. Want me to fix you something?"

"Thanks, but its fine. Really. I'll just grab something while I am out. I want to get to the stores early, and I don't like the crowds."

"Alright, if you say so. You're going shopping already?" She asked, crowding Catherine out of the way, and beginning to prep herself dome food. Casey nodded, shifting and leaning her back against the wall with the bathroom door.

"Yeah. I guess I had so much gear to load for shipment that I forgot to pack really any more clothes then I normally bring if I have a tournament. So I have some socks, and one extra pair of underwear. I hand to retire one on Wednesday.

"Oh. Well, I am not really one for clothes shopping, but I could take you around if you'd like. I know the area fairly well."

"Thanks again, but it's cool. I got a guide." Houki looked dubiously over her shoulder.

"Not Cecilia, I hope." Catherine and Cecilia had been getting along for the past few days, now that Cecilia was sure she was not going to get in trouble. They had even all been up, playing cards together, her, Catherine, Houki, Charlotte, and Laura, last night, and was the cause of them being up a little too late. Catherine seemed to be getting along with all of Houki's friends, save Tatenashi, who's forced smile when they crossed paths looked like that of someone biting into a lemon they weren't keen on.

"Nah. It's a local, and they are going to meet me out front in about… 4 minutes now. Have to bolt. Catch you later, Houki." Catherine had turned, noticing the time, and waved over her shoulder as she opened the door.

"Alright… have fun." She said, but might have refrained if she had known that the next time they would see each other would again be in the infirmary, or that Catherine's sojourn into the city was with Ichika, and the result of a meeting that had taken place in the men's bath on the evening of Friday night.

(…)

_Friday Night_

Catherine wallowed in the luxuriously warm water of the vacant men's bath. She loved being submerged in the warmth; it did wonders when her scars tightened and throbbed. The shower in the dorm room was ok… but it just couldn't compare to submerging herself to the chin in the warm, steamy scented waters.

She was the, to her knowledge, only girl on campus to have every received a pass to use the male bath. It was, perhaps a concession due to the events surrounding her arrival, and while not one to normally curry favor like that, when something felt this good, she was not too keen to reject the offer. And since there was only one student who used it besides her, and from what she had heard, rarely partook, she didn't even need to go through the trouble of timing it so that she could be alone. She had been surprised the first time she had changed in the girl's locker room. She didn't consider herself body conscious, except with her scars, but those were personal, not embarrassing. She had no problem with being naked, but was still not used to being in a room full of naked, or various stages of undress, people. Even if she wasn't shy, she was still used to a lifetime of naked time being private time, not just gender segregated. But, seeing as she wore her skintight IS suit under her uniform, or clothes, all she had to do was hop into a bathroom stall, shuck the outer, and stuff her clothes in a locker, and she was good.

She lay back, floating on the water, looking at the crossed timber roof through the obscuring steam. She must have fallen asleep, floating on her back, because she awoke with a jar, but couldn't figure out why. She was thinking that maybe she'd bumped her head on a side wall, when she heard a slosh and contented sigh.

"Ah, it seems like this is the only place I can escape and be alone anymore." The voice filtered in and registered, and Catherine decided she needed some questions answered from this person, and decided she could be seen by this person.

"Wouldn't it be nice if that was really the case?" She said, almost ethereally, and poked her head up from the small layer of steam, her hair, unbidden by its normal silver chopstick guard, was surprisingly long, as it washed over her shoulders and floated in a ring around her. There was a two second pause as Ichika, chest deep, processed this sudden apparition.

"Oh, shit!" He stumbled backward, growing slightly red, and stood to regain his balance. Catherine just cocked her head to the side like a curious puppy, a light smile on her lips, as she inspected the blurred form of male in front of her.

"Not bad." She commented, letting a hint of respect color the words. Ichika looked down, made a choking nice, and planted himself down hard, getting his back to her before the bulk of the splash rejoined its brother water.

"Sorry! I didn't realize someone was in here!" He sputtered. Catherine was bemused. Why would he? He was the only male in the school.

"Didn't you notice that I left my change of clothes in one of the baskets? Is that not what they are for? Am I mistaken?" She pushed off from the bottom, and moved soundlessly to the lip of the pool near the entrance, where she had left her glasses.

"Yes. Sorry, I didn't notice. Here. I'll leave." Catherine located her glasses, noted that he did not step on them, and placed them on. A light almost imperceptible crept from the left of each lens to the right, burning way the steam, and she could now see Ichika's back clearly.

"Don't bother. I ain't got anything worth getting excited over, and from your comment the other day, I assume you've already seen. So hand out for a while." Her voice carried a hint of frost at the end. She hooked her elbows over the lip if the pool, and leaned back against it, lounging, after adjusting her hair so it floated in front of her, covering her insubstantial chest. "Go ahead, turn around. I find it awkward talking to the back of a man's head." He hesitated.

"I'd really rather not…" Catherine arched a brow.

"Really now? Or is this a, "You showed me yours" thing, and you don't want to face me unless I'll show you mine? I can do that." She smiled as he turned, hands up.

"Oh, no! That's not it at all!" She chuckled.

"Relax, sport. I just wanted to get you to face me. If it helps, I am covered with a towel under here." She wasn't, but boys were shy. Especially ones who had just accidently flashed a near stranger. He was going to turn back, when his eyes rested on her left arm, and he looked concerned.

"Yes. That. When I borrowed your pants… Oh, and I need to return those, mine came in this morning. You PX her works fast. Anyway, when I met you there, you were about to ask me about these, I presume. Correct?"

"…yes…" He said, carefully. Her eyes narrowed.

"Alright. When did you have an opportunity to ogle at them?" Her voice was sharp, but didn't climb in volume.

"Ummm… when Tatenashi brought you in to the infirmary…"

"Who?" She snapped, wondering who else had this over her now.

"Sarashiki Tatenashi. The Student Council President." Catherine groaned.

"Ah, great, the Ruski." She muttered. Ichika looked confused.

"Rust…key?" Catherine looked momentarily ashamed.

"Sorry, meant, the Russian." Ichika didn't seem to get it, but nodded anyway.

"Alright. Well, she took you in, and I went to see after I saw that Cecilia wasn't; going to do anything stupid. They asked me to hold you up while they removed the top of your IS suit. You are a heavier then you look." Catherine let that comment go, because it was true. She was well muscled for her slender frame.

"Alright… so it just you, the Russian, and those two teachers that saw the scarring?" She asked, almost menacingly.

"…That I know of…" He again was taken aback. She wanted to ask the obvious question about if others were questioning her ability to pilot with her amount of injury, but she fought it off. After all, her stationary act was basically a gimmick. Once she was back in the saddle, she'd give them a real show that would leave no doubt to her ability. She wasn't as fast as she used to be by a decent factor, and sometimes her leg and arm would just completely crap out on her, but she still retained a shadow of her former self.

"Alright, then I shall forgive you." She visibly relaxed.

"What happened?" She eyed him, and smiled sorrowfully.

"Sorry, champ. But that is not a story I care to relive. Suffice to say, accidents happen." She angled for the subject change.

"What about you? Who are you trying to escape, your harem?" Ichika flashed a quick look of panic, but shook it off from long practice.

"My… what now?" Catherine flicked water at him. She wondered if he was meek, or if she was just dominating the conversation, or maybe he was really shy. After all, Chelsea, before she got her snide ass kicked, had always commented that she was overly aggressive both on and off the field.

"Come now. Okay, so it's not a Sultan's crop. But 7 isn't a bad amount." He tried to look confused, but was not pulling it off.

"I am afraid I do not understand."

"Please. You can play stupid around them, but that is not going to fly with me, Hun. No one can be _that_ stupid. How they can still believe it is beyond me." He was still stubbornly clinging to the oblivious act. So, Casey used her leverage. "Considering that fighting over you put me in the hospital, I think you could at least be honest with me." She added a sad inflection, and could almost hear the resounding thud as her volley hit the target. Bingo sounded like a back wrenching sigh. He wore such a look of utter weariness and defeat, Catherine felt an unaccustomed pang of feeling bad. She had taken advantage of her mishap three times already, it was time to stop. Her look softened.

"Hey, sorry. I guess I am just too pushy. It's okay, if you don't want to talk, or if I am making you uncomfortable, I'll leave."

"No. It's okay. I am just tired, and not used to such… informality with girls." Catherine flinched. In a formal society, that was not a good thing to be accused of.

"Oh, I am really sorry. I just find it so much easier to get along with guys. I always lived with my Brother, and he certainly didn't treat me like a girl. He treated me like one of his buddies from the think tank. He always used to say, "Kate,"" she made an exasperated face and said to Ichika, outside the framework of her story: "He always used to call me Kate, because he knew I hated it." She then continued. "Kate, I'd get you a water bra, so you could find some nice engineering student and settle down and start a mediocre firm and fabricate some sad little components, except that I would first have to buy a second one, so the first one would have something to accentuate." She made a cross between a smile and a frown, with a giggle mixed in. "Such an asshole. And that didn't even make sense, because _he_ was an Engineer!" Ichika didn't quite get why that was the part that she was irritated by, but smiled.

"So you don't get along with your brother?"

"What? No, we got along great. He just treated me as if I were a brother, too. Worked well, I just had some trouble with smoothness when interacting with other at level girls."

"That's nice to hear. I always thought I got along well with my sister… but my friends all think our relationship is odd."

"Is it odd?" Catherine asked, completely sincere.

"Umm… I don't think so…" Catherine smiled.

"Well, then there you go. I don't think anyone else is qualified to decide what is odd between siblings… unless you're sleeping with her. That would be odd. You're not… right?" She did her best to look warily curious. Ichika sputtered and drifted backward.

"What! Of course not!" Catherine giggled impishly.

"Relax, friend. I'm just kidding. You have such overblown reactions, it's fun to tease you." He looked even wearier, and Casey again felt bad. "So, why are you hiding? You never answered."

"Well… it is sort of like you said… with all 7 of them constantly attempting to get me away from the others, I almost never have any time to myself."

"Ah, so I am interfering with that, then. Want me to take off?" He thought about it for a moment.

"Not if you don't want to. It makes a difference when it's someone who isn't fighting over me." Catherine smiled and stretched, lifting her arms over her head in a stretch that was not indecent, but bordering on it. Ichika averted his eyes, but was calm. It was weird, he could talk to this girl whom he barely knew, but he was not strictly uncomfortable. She was very frank, and assertive almost to being rude, but at the same time she had that odd mix of apathetic interest that made her easy to talk to. It reminded him of when he hung out with Dan and Ran in the time since she confessed.

"That's good. I really am enjoying the soak. Really helps dissipate the soreness. So I have heard various accounts so far, why don't you fill me in on your side?"

So, for the next hour or so, they talked casually, just letting the conversation flow from one topic to the next. He told her about the girls, and how, in order to put off the time when he had to hurt them, he pretended to be neutron star dense. He also got into how he lived in the area, and some of the basics on the academy. It was quite a bit more informative that when Houki had tried to tell her things, but that was not her error. Houki just more answered when asked, whereas Ichika volunteered info he thought she might not know. He was kind of boring and more than a little plain… but he was likable enough. He did seem to shock fairly easily when Catherine talked about some of her past…shenanigans, but she didn't get the prudish vibe, just the inexperienced.

"So, you said you got your IS core after getting in touch with Tabane? But how did you get in touch with her? She is, as far as I know, completely outside of the government's ability to locate, except when she decides to pop in here. How did you get a line to her?" Catherine cocked her head, looking puzzled, like this was the simplest thing in the world.

"The same way everyone else does. She moderates the forums on her fan site, "Shinononet." She has a ideas thread, where she encourages users to post what they think are cool ideas, and when my brother posted some rough prints for Tess, she invited him to send her the full work up. Why? Is this not commonly known? I mean, she even trolls her own forums. It's kind of awesome." Ichika looked exhausted.

"Wow… that is so obvious, I never would have thought of it. That sounds like Tabane, alright."

"Oh, you know her?"

"Yeah, she and my sister Chifuyu are old friends, and I grew up with her Sister Houki." Catherine nodded in understanding, and, never one to miss a perfect segue way into where she wanted the conversation to go, pounced.

"Speaking of… which of the girls do you like?" He was not caught off guard, but he still did not like it. Catherine cut him off on his planed exit. "And don't tell me you don't like any of them. You would not be that concerned about hurting the others if you didn't have one singled out."

"I… am going with no comment."

"Oh, and if I got out, and dug in your wallet, who's picture would I find?" Another jackpot.

"You wouldn't." Ah, boys are always the same. Once they got a hold of a picture of a girl they liked, it was always tucked safely in the depths of their wallet, except when being viewed in in use for other, less wholesome activity. Her own brother had continuously kept a print of Tabane and one of Natasha Faris's Silver Gospel (The pic was an exploded blue print miniature of the IS) in his. He always did have strange taste with his concept of beauty.

Catherine cocked her brow and fitted on a predatory smile.

"If I wanted to, do you think you could stop a Wet, lithe, naked girl who is stronger then you?" She had apparently nicked what little pride the rest of the girls had not yet managed to kill.

"I am not a complete weakling." He said, with an attempt at machismo.

"Unless you are hiding a lot more muscle somewhere, I wouldn't favor your odds. I'll let you in on a little background. I was in High school for a year and a half before the accident. We used to play pick up football games during gym. Well, the boys did, and it was open to any of the girls who wanted to, though I was the only one who did. I was always the one who got to be ball carrier, because I didn't go around the other players defense, I went through, unless at least three of them were either very solid, or had really low centers of gravity.

After about three months, there was a petition to put me on the Varsity team, even though I was a freshmen and girls were not allowed on the schools official teams. I failed, of course, but they still tapped me for practice when I wasn't working with Everret."

"So you kicked a ball around good. That speaks more to agility then strength." Catherine waggled her finger at him.

"No, dear. FOOTBALL. Not Soccer. The one where a bunch of 300 pound men slam into each other." He still looked dubious, but his shoulders were set a little more cautiously. "I will tell you what. You're a local? Well, I need to go and do a little shopping, get replacements for the stuff I forgot to pack. Escort me, and I will drop the matter for now. Deal?"

"Alright. I can show you around."

"Shake." She said, and stretched out a pruned hand. He grasped it, and she proceeded to crush his hand until his knuckles popped. Not to be mean, but to show she was not bluffing. Ever since the injury, she did not like to leave doubt when she said she could do something. She released his hand, and stood, wherein he forgot immediately about the pain, and swiveled around with a yelp.

"Wh-what the hell! You said you were wearing a towel!" Catherine looked down at her own naked body and shrugged.

"Oh, yeah. I lied. Do people really wear towels in bath water? I always thought that was just a trope used in anime and such in order to keep the rating out of the nudity area."

(…)

_Sunday morning_

"You're late." Catherine said as she walked up to where Ichika was waiting for her.

"What?" He checked his watch, which read 9:12. He'd gotten there 10 minutes prior to 9, when they'd agreed to meet. He looked her over. He did not know what to expect her to dress liked, when not in school. It wasn't a dress or skirt, though he imagined her slender frame would suit a sundress quite nicely. What she wore, however were a pair of well-worn jeans, sneakers, and a black tank top. Under that, however, was her IS pilot suit, black and smooth, covering her left shoulder down to the writs, but leaving the right bare. She also wore a light material vest with a fur collar, which hung open and only had holes for two widely spaced buttons to draw it; an accessory rather than an item to keep warm with. On her hands was the ring that was her IS item, and a pair of thin fingerless gloves that Ichika did not recognize as shooting gloves. Finally, a pair of dog tags hung around her neck on a decorative silver chain that matched the single small hoop she wore in each earlobe. As always, she wore her glasses, which had polarized to a darker tint in the bright morning sun, and grew lighter as clouds passed in front of it.

"You're the one who is late." He said. She tutted at him, but did not look irritated.

"Don't you know that a lady is never late?" She shook her head. "Here." She held out a hand, a donut wrapped in a napkin offered. "Breakfast was uncooperative, so I dug these up."

"Oh, thanks." He said, and took it gingerly. He rummaged around in a pocket, and withdrew his wallet. "What do I owe you?" She changed her assessment. Maybe chivalry wasn't dead, after all.

"You can show me whose picture you keep in there." He stared at her, and she smiled innocently, trying to coax out some dimples she never had to begin with.

"Uhh… hell. Alright, but it will have to wait. If we don't hurry, we'll miss the train.

Once secured on the train, both standing, Ichika having offered the seat to Catherine, she in turn offered it to a mother with two young children in tow, Ichika reluctantly handed over his wallet, and did his best to look uninterested.

"Oh, chin up. I'm not going to use this against you, and I won't say a word to the girl, if I know her, and you don't want me to. I just am a busy body. She opened the wallet and gaped, before tilting her head curiously, trying to make sense of the picture staring back at her, the woman in question clearly hostile, and a smaller boy with her.

"Okay… so you like older women. Nothing to be ashamed of there." Ichika looked at her clearly confused.

"What are you talking about?" She held it up for him to see.

"It's that one teacher who seems to run the school. I don't see anything wrong with having a crush on a teacher. I mean, it might be a little weird that her kid is that old, but, hey, I guess it could be kind of cool to be a step parent." Ichika blushed vibrantly red.

"No, no no!" he said, raising his free hand. "God, no. That's my sister, Chifuyu. That picture was taken no long after her win at the first Mondo Grosso. I'm the kid."

"Oh… that makes sense. I though he looked vaguely familiar. Which is weird, as I know very few people here, and no kids. So you're into your sister?" She doubted that was the case, though the woman was certainly pretty enough to merit it. She had that kind of hard edged beauty that came with high power positions, and a severity that reminded Catherine of a Drill Sergeant she had had when serving her time so she could officially be the RC for the U.S.A., as they wanted someone who was a soldier, at least on paper, to represent the country. Ichika sighed.

"Why does everyone seem to think that?" He said, dejectedly, and shook his head. "No, she's just really all the family I have. Here." He reached into the billfold portion, and withdrew a surprisingly large sheet, folded, and clearly of magazine print. Catherine's right eyebrow crept skyward. Was he in unrequited love with one of those idols, like in some of the manga she read? He handed it to her, relieving her of the wallet, while she opened the simple fold, and looked at a ful 11 page out of a magazine. She frowned slightly.

"Ah, so you are into the big boobs." The page was a full color print. In it, Ichika was wearing a soft colored tux, his arms wrapped around the waist of a clearly embarrassed and non-resistant Houki. "She certainly cleans up nice." Houki herself was wearing a neat and fitting pale blue dress that smelled of summer, riding the border between elegant and casual, and looking very pretty outside of her usual ramrod straight bearing. The dress made her substantial bust even more impressive with its generous helping of cleavage.

"Not exactly. I won't say I don't like it… but … I don't know. I knew Houki when we were kids, before she moved away. But, I guess I never really noticed anything until I saw her in class, my first day at the academy." Catherine smiled, looked one last time at the picture, and carefully folded it back and returned it.

"Long lost love found again, eh?

"Not really. It had been six years since I had seen her. We had been just kids, and I really almost didn't recognize her, she had changed so much. And no, not just there." He said, with a side long glace at Catherine. She grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Party pooper." She didn't get to reply, as at that moment, the warning bell chirped, and the station was announced, followed by the squealing of the brakes.

**End 4.**

**Cutting it here, because I want to post it, (been a while) and I don't want to streach this one as far as the scenes I have planned would push it. So I'll save it for the next one, which may be short, as I may make the start of one the IS test. So, thanks for tuning in if you did, and I hope this clears up the question of the Ichika X ? pairing. And, I hope that how Tabane was contacted fits. I kicked that one around a lot, and liked where it landed. Thanks for reading!**

**Also, I have to write some pointless fluff piece, so may be a spell before the next part.**


	5. Chapter 5

_Infinite Stratos: God of Thunder_

_By: The 483_

_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Infinite StratosFranchise._

_**Spoiler Alert: Warning: Light to mild spoilers for the Anime may be included herein.**_

**In the City**

They had been quiet since leaving the train, Catherine following slightly behind and to the side of Ichika while she thought of what to say.

"So… if you like her, and she's made it pretty obvious that she likes you… why don't you just ask her out?" Ichika was decidedly uncomfortable with this, because it was a problem he thought about a lot.

"It's more complicated than just that." He said, gloomily.

"Is it because you like having all the girls fawning over you?"

"No!" Ichika replied, sharply, and Catherine grinned at the back of his head. "I don't dislike any of the girls, on their own merits. I truly didn't believe that any of them could really like me, like they seem to. I would have never considered myself conceited enough to think even one of them would actually be interested in me. I mean, besides a few lucky shots, and the fact that I am the only male capable of piloting an IS. And I think better of them all then to think they'd just like me because of that."

"A girl likes a guy for more just his utility. If that was all it was, only the subservient nice guys would ever mate."

"But still, if I asked Houki out, and she said yes… what would it be like for the others? I don't want to hurt them if they really do like me." He was almost pleading.

"And you don't think leading them all on by pretending you don't notice how they feel isn't far more cruel then you respecting them enough to tell them how you feel?" Ichika stopped and looked at her as if she had slapped him.

"What?" She adjusted her glasses on her nose, and crossed her arms, fixing him square in the eyes.

"Think about it. Is it really better that they are willfully wasting their time and effort trying to secure a place in your heart that already has an occupant? Think about how lowlt it would feel if someone took your own feelings, and rather then have the balls to tell you that they were not interested, continued to bask in the shows of affection, never letting on that they knew why you were doing what you were doing." She drew a sharp breath, getting angry as she spoke. "Come on! You may think that you're avoiding it to "save their feeling" or whatever, but it's just rank cowerdice, and you're simply leading them on, which I don't care who you think you are, is wrong." Ichika took a step back. She was almost yelling, and the words were hitting home.

"You tell someone that you aren't romantically interested in them. If they are your friends, they'll hurt for a while, but understand. If they are petty, they hate you, but at least you can feel respected for being honest, and respecting them enough to acknowledge their feelings." Catherine stopped suddenly, blinking back tears and noticing that there were several eyes on her. She seemed to visibly shrink as she blushed and couched into her fist to clear her throat.

"Oh, my. Sorry about that." She said, demurely, before removing her glasses and wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.

"That… that's okay. A lot of what you said rings true. You just surprised me with your… forcefulness." She coughed again, and nodded.

"Sorry. Wasn't your fault." She sighed. "One of the few things I disliked about my brother, was that I had a friend that liked him, and was not shy about showing it. He'd accept what she offered, but never acknowledged it to her. He said that he enjoyed the perks with none of the resposiblities. Even at his funeral, she cried as much for her own failing in properly showing her love, as she did for sadness at him being gone. Pissed me off so much, I still haven't been able to talk to her sense." Ichika's eyes widened, as her words hit home, and the light glinted off the formost tag around her neck. It had the name "Chambers, Everret" and two dates. He had been 28 when he died.

"Oh, you're brother is… I am sorry." He felt awkward.

"No, don't worry about it. It's sad, sure, but he got to go in a way he would have enjoyed. And he managed to finish Tesla before he went, so he was not dissatisfied." She shook her head and cleared the fog, and smiled, reequipping her cheery persona. "Anyway, forget my ire, I am just a notorious busy body at heart, I guess. Hope I didn't put you off too badly." She smiled apologetically.

"No, it's really okay. I hadn't really thought about it, from that angle before. It does make a painful amount of sense. Truth is," he started walking again, and Catherine kept pace with him now, her chest lightened, "I did have one of them clearly confess. She's not in the school, she's the sister of a friend I've had for a long time, and I told her the truth, and were actually pretty good friends now." They crossed under an arch, into a plaza with a fountain, boarded by multi storied buildings on three sides, adverts in the windows staring down.

"So, what kind of things you need?" Catherine dug into the ass pocket of her jeans, and pulled out several scraps of paper, sorted them briefly, grabbed one with her teeth, and jammed the rest back in the pocked. She opened it, and tried to decipher her handwriting.

"Let's see… hmmm… some casual shirts, at least one more pair of casual pants, bed clothes, and enough underwear and socks for a week and some leeway if I am lazy and feel like putting off laundry day. Then we can just window shop and see what turns up, unless you are bored."

"Sounds good. Any particular style you are looking for? No? Alright, then let's try that department store on the 3rd and 4th floors of this building. They tend to have a decent selection." She nodded, deferring to his judgment, while still feeling like she'd just made a complete ass out of herself.

Catherine wasn't exactly picky when it came to fashion, but she did expect certain things out of her clothing, as far as comfort and fit were concerned. And the women's department did not suit those criteria. So, she had Ichika direct her to the men's department. That was a bit better. She found a pair of jeans she liked, but was too big in the waist, so she grabbed two, and a sturdy nylon weave belt that she could alter the buckle on with her tools in the IS pit. She added a package of 3 white t-shirts, one size larger than a snug fit, a double package of socks, and a pair of large, plain white long sleeved dress shirts in a super soft silk, for sleep wear. The bra selection she found… undesirable, as any of the adult models she liked, did not come small enough to fit, and she refused to consider a training bra. She preferred sports bras, as she could, if lazy, wear that instead of a shirt when at home, or alone with Houki, and was just far less hassle then a normal bra. But she would need to go to an actual lingerie store to find a decent one, so she would wait and get panties there, as well. She relayed this to Ichika while standing in line to check out.

"Hey, I got all I can here. I'll just need to hit a lingerie store, and the vending machines, and then I should have all I need, and I'll buy lunch."

"Alright. But why the vending machines?"

"To get panties, of course. They only sell them in vending machines here, right? Or is that only for used ones?"

"What are you talking about?" Ichika said, a touch incredulous. "I have never seen any vending machines selling ANY variety of underwear." Catherine frowned.

"Darn. Another racist stereotype dispelled. I am starting to think very few of the offensive things we believe go on in your country are true. Disheartening."

"Not being racist is disheartening?"

"Not at all. Finding out that everything you thought you knew is completely wrong is. Oh, well. It's cool to actually learn things the way that they truly are, though, too." She smiled. "Oh, don't look at me like that. Don't you have any untested assumptions about other cultures?" She giggled at the face he made. "See? Maybe that's what unites us all, globally. We all assume our neighbors are a lot stranger than they actually are. But still, my fingers are crossed for Godzilla. Do me a favor, and let me keep believing." Ichika attempted to take her bags, but she did not let him win out fully. She carried one herself, as her pride demanded that much. The walked out into the air, which had gotten slightly cooler, the cloud cover having become denser, and rain again threatening to fall. "Do you know if there is a lingerie shop in this complex?" Ichika looked slightly embarrassed.

"I don't know, I don't frequent that type of place."

"Okay, then look it up on your phone." He looked blank, and the duh, as he pulled out his phone and did a quick search. He then looked around and pointed.

"It looks like there is one in there, on the third floor. Do I need to enter with you?"

"Not if you are that uncomfortable. It's just swatches of cloth, you know."

"Right, of course. A guy just gets looked at weird when they go into a store like that." She smiled understandingly.

"Not if you are actually with a girl, unless they are bitches. And even then, as long as you're not like, rubbing up on stuff or sniffing things." She let her smile turn coy. "Which, of course, you wouldn't do, right?" He was about to reply, when he saw something behind Catherine, and they both heard his name called.

"Hey, Ichika, bro, what are you doing here?" The voice was lazy sounding, and, upon turning, Casey saw it belonged to what she would normally regarded as a hippie. But he didn't feel like a hippy. It was more just that bandana he wore and the relaxed, or almost torpid manner he exuded. Maybe, uncomplicated was the word. Next to him, with a small bag in one hand, was a girl who, if hair color was a sign, was related to him. She looked bright and energetic.

"Hello, Dan. Ran. You guys out shopping, too?"

"Yeah…" Dan said, rubbing the back of his head, "Ran keeps trying to convince me that I missed her birthday, so either way, I let her pick out something." The bag clutched in her hand was branded with the name of a not too expensive jewelry shop. But she was only looking at Catherine, her eyes not quite narrowed. She knew about the other seven girls, but this one did not fit the description of any of them.

"Ichika," she said, a suspicious tone in her voice, "don't tell me you've found a ninth." Catherine pretended to be offended.

"Ninth? You bastard, you told me I was the eighth!"

"Wait, eighth? You know about the others?"

"You know about the others?" Catherine shot back. Ran looked smug, and crossed her arms.

"Of course. Of the others, I am the only one that has actually confessed to him."

"Oh! He was telling me about that. Good for you. I am not actually trying to get him to date me, however. He just volunteered to take me shopping, because this is his home town." She smiled warmly, and held out her hand. "My name is Catherine, by the way, but you may call me Casey." Ran eyed her again, then smiled herself and shook hands.

"Nice to meet you, Casey. I am Ran Gotanda."

"Pleased to meet you, too. You hair is so pretty. Is it your natural color?"

"Yes, actually, it is. I used to dye it, to fit in, but I have recently let it go back. What are you shopping for? I live here, too, so I can help."

"Oh, thank you. I just need to get a bra or two, and some panties. Ichika looked it up, and we're going over there." She pointed. Ran looked disgusted.

"Oh, no. You don't want to go there. Don't worry, I know just the place, come on." She turned to Ichika and Dan, who could do not but stand and stare in openmouthed stupor at how the girls met, squared off, and became friendly in the span in such a short span. "Well, come on, you two. You can wait outside, but I can't have you wandering off, and getting lost." And she grabed Casey's arm at the elbow, and towed her toward the direction.

"…what just happened?" Ichika asked, looking stupidly at his friend.

"I have no idea…" Dan replied, watching them cut through the crowd. "Did they already know each other or something… and were just fooling with us?"

"No. I don't think so. She's new here, only in the country for a week now. From America."

"Really. Seemed pretty nice, for an American. She after you, too?" He said, turning his eyes to Ichika, with a knowing smile.

"Nah. At least, according to her."

"Well, we'll see. Now, we should probably catch up. If we make Ran mad, she'll probably make me buy her the bracelet that goes with that necklace."

(…)

All in all, it was a productive and fun day. After the lingerie shop, and a good 15 minutes of teasing the boys, they had lunch at a nice little hole in the wall shop that had cheap food at even cheaper prices. Ran had made sure to exchange phone numbers and email addresses with Casey, and they were on the path to becoming friends.

"Thanks, Ichika. Today was nice." She said, as the crossed under an arch and back onto the school grounds.

"Not a problem." He said, and smiled. "It's nice going out, and not feeling guilty about favoring one of the girls over the others, or hiding from them." It was just before 4 in the afternoon, and the sun was low in the sky, just a few degrees from touching the tops of the tallest of the campus buildings.

"Well, don't you two seem to be having a good time?" A calm, level voice said at their backs. Catherine stiffened almost as much as Ichika did, as he turned haltingly to face Tatenashi, her back against the arch support, eyes closed, mocking smile on her face.

"Ah, Tatenashi!" Ichika chocked out, wondering if she had heard his comment. She was … not more clever then the others… more savvy. Catherine frowned, her good mood suddenly having been beaten to death. A flare of anger rose in her gut, and see decided she was healed well enough to hold her own. She reached back, and unclipped the good sized knife she wore on her belt, at the small of her back, and dropped it into the bag she was holding. She intercepted Ichika before anything else could be said, and pushed the bag into his chest.

"Ichika, be a dear, and make sure that these go to my room, okay? You know which one it is right? Houki's? Good." She said, loud enough it carried. She added something else, in a tight whisper. "I am in no mood for bitch right now, and I do not want you to get in trouble for what I am going to do. So scram." He didn't move. "Go." She said, more forcefully, with a look in her eye that told him he needed to obey.

"A-alright." He said, frowning, and turned away. Tatenashi, who had been watching, arms crossed and leaning, cocked a brow, wondering if this bitch was really stupid enough to do what she figured she was doing.

"I get it." Catherine said, and turned back to Tatenashi. "You don't like me. I didn't press it at first, with that farce you called a duel, because I thought maybe it was hazing, or a racial thing." She flashed a predatory smile. "But this petty crap… I don't care for it." Tatenashi pushed off the column, frowning now.

"Oh? So you thought that little display when you arrived was personal? Pfft. That was just for fun. If I had wanted to shame you, I would have fought you myself. You aren't even worth my ire." She said, but was irked nonetheless when the insult didn't seem to cause a reaction. Catherine just smiled more broadly, as the distance closed until they were face to face, within arms reach.

"Well, you're cocky, I'll give you that. Thinking so highly of yourself, makes we wonder what kind of competition you have on this side of the world. I mean, I've only seen Alcott actaually fight, and while I don't think she was really trying, I was still not impressed. If you are basing your own estimation on that kind of combat, I'd be pleased to give you a glimmer of what a real battle is like. Help you find the lower bracket you belong in." Tatenashi snorted.

"And you are claiming that I am arrogant, when you make a speech like that?"

"With the way you strut about, like queen of your own little world? Yes." She said it so plainly, as if stating a fact she was reading off a card, it was hard to rebut.

"Calling me out for arrogant when you have done little else then get shot is hardly humble." Catherine shrugged.

"Sure. Getting hampered and harried to the point where it becomes plain that the referee of a fight is going to restrict my unit to the point where it is clear that I am going to lose, even if I won, and refusing to fight in such a crooked duel got me injured. My pride didn't allow me to participate in a fixed game. Sure, I was pissed, but I let it lie, until I learned that it was just a petty little bitch abusing her position to tip the odds in a fight over a boy."

"Watch you mouth." Tatenashi hissed, with silted eyes." Catherine smiled.

"I will not tolerate that." Now Tatenashi smiled wickedly. She hoped this girl would take a poke at her, so she could put her in her place.

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"Well, you see, my brother would often get into some hot debates when he went to academic conventions. And, he just so happened to teach me his secret method for the perfect problem solver." Tatenashi was wary of the girl's confidence, she didn't seem ruffled.

"What's that?" Catherine smiled happily, then with a quick jerk of the neck, smashed her face into the other girls with a wet crunch in a powerful head-butt.

(…)

Houki didn't know whether to be pissed or worried. She had, maybe 3 minutes before, gotten the message that Catherine had gotten in a fight, and was in the infirmary. Reports were sketchy, but most of them seemed to consist of "The new girl picked a fight with Sarashiki." And since the one Sarashiki would have to be hunted down in order to start trouble with, that could only mean she had engaged Tatenashi. So Houki had rushed out only a few minutes after Ichika had dropped off some bags for Catherine. She had no idea what to expect, but was nevertheless surprised when she drew close, to hear laughing coming from the closed room. She opened the door slowly, and was greeted almost at once.

"Oh, hello, Houki." She said, wiping her eyes and still slightly chuckling. She was in a bed, a nurse fussing over her, a bandage on her forehead, and one ear taped completely in gauze. The nurse was taping a splint between the middle and ring fingers of her left hand, and she had what looked like a trio of scratch marks on her cheek.

Tatenashi was in bad shape as well. Her nose had been smashed, and the hollows under her eyes had grown black rings on top of a clear black eye on her swollen left socket. She also had a bruise along the left side of her jaw, and her right arm was in a sling.

"What the hell, Casey?" Houki said, anger winning the balance. Catherine merely continued to smile, though it was Tatenashi that answered.

"Oh, calm down, Houki. Everything is alright." Tatenashi said authoritatively.

"How is it alright?" Houki asked, partly worried about if she would get in trouble for letting Catherine off her leash. Tatenashi gave her that infuriating smile she wore when she was talking down to someone, while acting as if she were describing the obvious.

"Simple. I already talked to Miss Orimura, and explained the situation. Everything is in the clear." Houki was not contented.

"Okay, so then what the hell happened?"

"We had a frank discussion of values, and bonded." Casey chirped happily. The nurse clicked her tounge.

"Quit moving, Miss Chambers, I need to bandage your arm." Casey looked puzzled, and then at her arm. About half way between the wrist and elbow, a perfect semi-circle of rounded divots was impressed into the bruised flesh.

"Oi, Tatenashi… did you bite me?" She held it up for the other to see. Tatenashi placed a finger to her chin, winced, moved it farther down, and then thought.

"…No. I think you happened to backhand me at one point, and I happened to have my mouth open at the time. I remember getting hit in the mouth with some fleshy thing, but I didn't have a chance to bit down.

"Makes sense." Catherine said with a shrug, then let the nurse have her way. "You have very straight teeth." Tatenashi smiled.

"Thank you. You have a very strong backhand."

"How do you class that as a discussion?" Houki fumed. "God, that's twice in a week you've landed in the hospital!"

"No." Casey corrected, holding up a finger. "That's twice _she_ has put me in here." She hooked a thumb at Tatenashi, who nodded. Neither girl seemed in the least upset.

"That is correct. You see, Houki, each of us had the problem that we were unable to see the other as anything other than someone to look down on. We needed to learn the proper respect for one antoher." She explained calmly.

"And the easiest way to do that was to beat the hell out of each other. Now we know where stand were, and she's not that bad."

"Right." Tatenashi agreed, and leaned forward conspiratorially. "And let me just say, Houki, you have one violent new friend."

"Excuse me? You are saying that I am violent?"

"Well, I would know, wouldn't I?"

"Fair point."

"I suppose it runs in your family? You said something about your brother teaching you that argument breaker? Said he used it at scientific conferences?"

"Yeah. He sometimes didn't get to stay long… and wasn't often invited back."

"Wait…wait. What is going on?" Houki couldn't quite follow the plot line, and her confusion stoked her ire.

"It's all good, Houki, were friends now." Catherine said, sensing impending meltdown. "You don't have to worry. I let her get my tail feather up, but we took care of it. I won't cause any more problems, I promise. But, we will have to move back my IS testing a bit. I hurt my leg, and the damn thing has seized up on itself. I won't be able to do better than a limp until it decides to loosen."

(…)

It was more than a week before they were able to set up the test. Casey's leg had unkinked around Thursday night, but another rainy weekend had postponed it until the following Wednesday. And even though she had been greenlit to use her weapon, the staff at the school still were hesitant to just turn her loose without knowing how much damage it could actually cause. This was why Catherine, Honne, and Kiyoka were finishing the setup on the 3 meter radius dome that was a stress tester for weaponry. The dome was made of a thin white metal latticework filled with grey hexagonal plates that were essentially just large, electronic burst discs. Inside, beside the electric nerves that collected the data, was a shield generator that would put up screens of better the 10000 points. This was possible because it was a non-moving unit, and could be hooked directly to the power source, rather then IS Core batteries.

"Amazing, isn't it, Tatenashi?" Houki, sitting a short distance away, sat with Tatenashi as they watch Catherine's butt sticking out of a lifted plate, wiggling to a tune only she could hear. "She can figure out how that thing works, and help fix it up, but cannot manage to work the Rice Cooker." They saw a hand snake out, and display a single digit straight up. Apparently, she could hear them.

"I don't get it myself. The lower machines just don't speak to me like these deliciously complicated ones." She pat the side of the machine, the pulled herself out. "There, that should cover it." She turned and cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted. "Oi, Kaoruko, go ahead and fire it up!" There was a short delay, then a loud bang, followed by steady chugging as the fuel cell powered generator came to life. Kaoruko studied the old fashioned LCD screen for a moment, then tapped at it a few times. Miss Yamada, standing next to her, did not interfere. She was out of her depth.

"Did that do it?" Catherine slapped the machine, and contacted metal.

"Nope, no shield." Kaoruko pressed a few more, waited, looking irked, and pressed a few more. Catherine jerked back as there was a loud pop and a thrum of vibration through the ground that threw up a small puff of dust around the edge where the dome met the ground. She slapped at it again, saw the slight ripple as the shield took the kinetic energy. "Looks good here. You get a read on that?"

"Yeah!" She shouted back, over the noise of the generator. "It took 6 points. The readout is weird, but I kind of understand it."

"Can you forward it to my glasses?" Casey shouted back, walking toward her.

"What? Oh, ummm… I don't think so… this display is ancient." Casey jogged over, and pressed in close, examining the panel.

"Damn, I think you're right." She pulled out her phone, swiped it over the console, pressed some buttons, waited, and the sighed. She put her phone away. "Yeah. Not even a pulse, much less a handshake. Oh, well, I guess you'll have to monitor it." Kaoruko gave a thumbs up.

"Works for me." She answered. "I can see fine, and if I have the actual stats, it makes a better article."

"You sure? Alright, cool. Thanks." She clapped Kaoruko on the shoulder, and moved back to the dome. She quickly skinned off her tank top and pants, leaving her in her pilot suit, and tossed the pair at Houki, who was smirking for some reason Casey could not figure out. Probably more smack talk. She the flicked at her ring, and called her IS. "Tesla, assemble!"

With a flash of light, a purple ray struck her in center of the chest, and metal spread in the form of a 5 point harness, over each shoulder, over each side of her hips, and one below and between the legs, linking in the small of her back. From there, a disk of blue white electricity swirled about half a meter from the tips of her outstretched arms and legs. Metal forms of gleaming dark purple and gold trim materialized from the disks, and slid into place over her arms and legs, before crystalizing into their finished form. As they snapped into position, waist and shoulder armor extended and linked. A band formed over the back of her head, and extended little probes over and under her ears. Finally, the 4 disk coalesced over her head, and her two wing spars spiraled out, spinning rapidly until they reached their spots, whence the stopped and floated. The final electric charge in the disk arced to the ground, dancing along the sides of her IS as it finished summoning.

"Ah, feels good to be mounted again." Catherine flexed her shoulders, and looked pleased. She reached over her shoulder, and lifted clear her rifle. It extended, the triangular plates sliding into place, and a jet of gas venting from a relief valve near the base of the barrel.

"Hey, why does it do that?" Tatenashi asked, looking over curiously, shielding her face from the glare of Catherine's machine with her hand.

"What? The vent? The interior of the barrel is a vacuum chamber. Not a good vacuum, mind you. You can't get a real, good quality vacuum in such a small device. But it does help reduce the wear on the rail and coils."

"How does it work?" She continued, looking up. Casey looked uncomfortable, then shrugged.

"No real secret, here. The coils generate and induction field, which pulls the projectile along and throws it at about one and a half times the speed of sound. The projectile is very low mass, and shaped so that it spreads most of its energy on impact. I also have the output tweaked to about 30% of maximum field strength, so it shouldn't do more than knock out the lowest quality model IS's shields. Plus, the projectile is specially made to detonate itself if I miss, so there is very little chance for collateral damage."

"That's the best it can do?" Houki asked, a little disappointed.

"Goodness, no. If I turned up the fields to max, and loaded a solid metal slug, it would tear through any model of IS I've seen specs for, liquefy the pilot, and keep going till it hit something sturdy, wherein it would make one hell of a boom. What I have it set for is to be as safe as humanly possible, while still being an effective tool for contest."

"Alright, then. Show us how she works." Tatenashi said, holding up her hands.

"Okay. Umm… you two should move up into the stands, just in case." They didn't argue, seeing as Kaoruko, about 200 meters away, had a thick, plastiglass portable wall she was coved by. This was not an idle precaution. The stands, while coated in a shield that theoretically could not be pierced, still had a specially treated glass shield covering it as well, about 12 centimeters thick. Shrapnel and missed shots had a bad habit of doing some very unexpected things. "You all good over there, Kaoruko?" She spoke into her IS radio.

"Yep. Looks good, Casey. Ready when you are."

"Alright. Thanks. Just make sure, that when I call out, you cover your ears really good. It's going to be loud." She waited until she saw Houki and Tatenashi move into seats, and waved. She keyed her radio to proadcast in the booths.

"You guys hear me in there?" There were nods. "Okay, good." She reached out and raked back the charging lever, connecting leads and priming the main battery. "Cover your ears girls, this one's going to shake your teeth a bit." She waited until both did so, then checked Kaoruko, before putting the guns but to her shoulder, and took aim. The little extensionals under and above her ear grew a little dome, and covered her own ear. She toggled a switch, and plates dropped from the feet of her IS and clamped to the ground, as hydraulics shifted to brace her. She breathed out, and squeezed the trigger.

The target, a scant 150 meters away, was hit before the colossal thundering BOOM shook the walls of the stadium. A white streak connected the barrel of the gun to the dome, and the sound of shot followed the crash of the impact by a fraction of a second. Both noises overlapped into an ear splitting roar that faded slowly in a series of echoing rumbles. The concussion from the shot threw up dirt in a circle from the point of shot, and caused the air to shake.

All the triangular plates flared outward as the vacuum was breached, and steam billowed from the chamber. She held it out, as her ear guards snapped off, and let it cool. She began to walk toward Kaoruko and Miss Yamada, and seeing that the show was apparently over, Houki and Tatenashi made their way back the field, and headed over.

"So, Ma'am… what do you think?" Catherine asked from her towering vantage point over the other two. They were all scrutinizing the display screen, which gauged the effect of the impact.

"Hmmm… well, it hit the shield for 368 points… and kinetic buffers say that none of the force penetrated. Can you do it again, just to make sure?"

"Umm… yeah, but I want to let her cool for a couple minutes. The heat is hell on it."

"You mean you can only shoot it once?" Houki asked, still looking for something to criticize.

"Oh, no. If I dumped my batteries into it, I could max the charge, and fire again. But the rails would probably melt." They waited another two minutes, plugged their ears, and Catherine fired again. This time the damage was rated at 384.

"Alright. I think that is sufficient. Very well, Miss Chambers. You are approved to participate in duels and contests."

**End 5**


End file.
